
epartment iRbrarj). jj ^ 



SECTION, 




""7S yz_z z 




Class J K 2, 35 b 
Book ,"- B"Fl 




►if 



^ 



*n ^TarDe^ 



U 



WH 



^K 




I am a Republic 



A HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, A DEFENSE OF ITS 

POLICY, AND THE REASONS WHICH JUSTD7Y 

ITS CONTINUANCE LN POWER, 



WITH 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. 



GEORGE SrBOUTWELL. 



HARTFORD, CONN.: 

WM. J. BETTS & CO 

1884. 



t* 



h* 



JK235& 



COPYRIGHTED BY 

WM. J. BETTS & CO. 

1884. 



Transfer 

Army War College 

June 2€ 1933 



OF 

The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 
hartford, conn. 






J? 



^ 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

The Provisions of the Constitution of the United States in re- 
lation to slavery, and their force in the Politics of the 
country, 7 

CHAPTER II. 

The Missouri Compromise and its repeal. .... 11 

CHAPTER III. 

The organization of the Republican Party, the contest in Kan- \/ 

sas, and the elections of 1856 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Senatorial contest of 1858 in Illinois, and fhe election of 
Mr. Lincoln in 1860 26 

CHAPTER V. 

The Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln and the political and military 
questions then forced upon the country. .... 82 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Proclamation of Emancipation and the amendments to 
the Constitution 38 

CHAPTER VII. 

The election of 1864 with a view of the position of the Dem- 
ocratic and Republican parties 52 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Financial Policy of the Republican party and its results. 64 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Protective Policy of the Republican Party, and its effects 
upon the wages of laborers and upon the prices of commo- 
dities. 74 

CHAPTER X. 

The Policy of the Republican Party in regard to the Public 
Lands 83 

CHAPTER XL 

The Policy of the Republican Party in favor of universal edu- 
cation 88 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Increase of the country in Population and Wealth since 
1860 91 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Questions at Issue in the pending contest. ... 95 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Influence of the United States in the affairs of the World, 
.due to the administration of the government by the Repub- 
lican Party 107 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. ... 165 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. ... 185 



CONTENTS. 



ADDEESSES, PLATFOEMS, ETC. 



Abraham Lincoln's speech at Springfield, 111., June 17, 1858. 
Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. . 
Proclamation of Emancipation, Sept. 22, 1862. 
Proclamation of Emancipation, Jan. 1, 1863. . 
Abraham Lincoln's Oration at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863. 
Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, 

Republican Platforms, 1856-1884 

Democratic Platform, 1864. . 



INDEX. 



114 
122 
131 
133 
135 
136 
138 
163 

196 



INTEODUCTIOF. 



It has been my purpose, in the preparation of this volume, to present 
at one view a history of the Republican party, a defense of its pol- 
icy and the reasons which justify its continuance in power. I have 
not dwelt upon its errors and mistakes; it has committed errors, it has 
made mistakes, but those errors and mistakes have not interfered 
with its general policy nor affected in any sensible degree the good 
fortune of the country. 

It accepted power when the industries of the country were insig- 
nificant in volume, limited in variety, and paralyzed by the constant 
and vigorous warfare upon every measure designed to foster labor or 
to add to the security of capital employed in manufactures and trade. 
The country was enslaved to the idea that agriculture might prosper 
while manufactures were neglected. 

It accepted power when the country was on the eve of a gigantic 
war and when all the conditions and circumstances were unfavorable 
to its successful prosecution. 

It has administered the government during a fourth part of its 
constitutional existence. 

In that period the resources of the country have been so developed, 
its industries so multiplied and magnified that the era is marked as 
one of unexampled prosperity. In that period a new generation of 
men has come upon the stage, who cannot, out of their own expe- 
rience, institute either contrasts or comparisons between the near and 
the more remote past. 

I have sought to address myself to that class in the hope that I 
may enable them to see, as in one view, the beneficial changes that 
have been wrought by the Republican party in constitutional law, 
in public policy, in the educational and industrial condition of the 
people, and above all in the sentiment of nationality, which is better 
security for the preservation of the Union than can be had in statutes 

and constitutions. 

GEO. S. BOUTWELL. 
Groton, Mass. 



RECEIVED. 



CHAPTER lS^TjSTJ AB^ 



THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION IN RELATION TO SLAVERY 
AND THEIR FORCE IN THE POLITICS OF THE COUNTRY. 

THERE were three provisions of the original Constitution of 
the United States, and all relating to Slavery, that were in 
conflict with the opinions and principles of the founders of the 
States of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. 

The framers of the Constitution recognized the existence of the 
conflict, but they made no provision for its adjustment. As the form- 
ation of a more perfect Union was then a political necessity, there 
was, indeed, no possibility of an adjustment of the conflict between 
the system of slavery and the principles of human equality. In the 
presence of that necessity the advocates of Slavery achieved a deci- 
sive victory. It is not now important to trace the steps by which 
the victory was won, nor to know the names of members of the 
Convention who made motions or gave votes. It was then a higher 
duty to create a nation than to stigmatize or to shun an evil. But 
the victory was temporary, and in less than three-fourths of a cen- 
tury those provisions of the Constitution, which were designed to 
protect the system of Slavery, became the efficient if not the sole 
cause of its destruction. 

By the Constitution the foreign slave trade was tolerated for twenty 
years, and thus the slave population was greatly augmented, ihe sys- 
tem was extended to new territories, and the number of persons 
interested, pecuniarily, in Slavery was largely increased. 

By another provision of the Constitution the slave population was 
divided into classes of fives, and each class was counted as three 
free persons in the representation of the several States in the House 
of Representatives and in the Electoral Colleges for the choice of 
President and Vice-President of the United States. Thus it came 
to pass that by the importation of savage negroes from Africa, the 
South added to its political power in the government of the country, 

(7) 



8 PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

and thus for seventy years was the increase in the number of ignor- 
ant and non-voting slaves set off against the votes of the educated, 
active, self-reliant, and enterprising freemen of the North. 

As if it were a purpose to keep these impolitic and unjust provi- 
sions of the Constitution before the eyes of the people of the Free 
States, the duty of returning fugitives from service to their masters 
was imposed upon the National Government. In the performance 
of that duty Congress denied to the alleged fugitive the right of 
trial by jury, and confided to subordinate officers of the courts the 
authority to decide irrevocably the fate of every person arraigned 
as a fugitive from slavery. 

The amalgamation of the races was one of the fruits of slavery, 
and as the child followed the condition of the mother, the system 
came to include, finally, many persons who had only a strain of 
African blood in their veins. And thus the surrender of persons 
apparently white was developed as an incident of the system. 

From 1790 to 1860 the population of the North increased im- 
mensely. Following the lines of latitude it took possession of the 
Mississippi Valley north of the Ohio and the Missouri. 

The love of liberty and a hatred of slavery were taught in all the 
schools and preached in all the churches, but with equal, if not with 
greater zeal the doctrine of obedience to the Constitution was taught 
also. Thus was the public sentiment of the North so wrought that 
it would concede to slavery whatever was stipulated in the Constitu- 
tion ; but it was ready, as well, to deny every fresh demand. 

Under a system of intelligent, free labor, the tendency is to pro- 
duce as much as is possible, and to consume only what is necessary. 
Hence wealth. Under the system of slavery the tendency is to pro- 
duce as little as possible, and to consume whatever can be procured. 
This of the slaves, and hence poverty. The owners lived in idleness 
and indulged in prodigal ways. At the end the North was rich, 
relatively, and the South was poor. Slavery had exhausted the 
land, and the slave-owners had been impoverished by the habits born 
of the system. The slave-owners needed new lands for personal 
subsistence, and they needed new States for political power. 

If the North had been indifferent to the system of slavery in a 
moral view of the subject, it would have resisted its appropriation 
of new territory, and upon the ground that it would not permit the 
constitutional system of political inequality to be extended and 
strengthened. 



PEOVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 9 

If the Constitution had abolished instantly the foreign slave-trade, 
if the basis of representation had been limited to free persons, and if 
it had been provided that the question whether an alleged fugitive 
from service was bound legally to perform such service should be 
decided by a jury, the system of slavery would have continued for 
years, and perhaps for generations, in the States of the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Lower Mississippi Valley. 

Slavery would have been without political power, and therefore it 
never could have organized a rebellion against the Government. In 
a state of domestic peace there would have been no justifying cause 
for national interference. 

In that condition of affairs, slavery would have existed in the 
several States until by the individual action of such States its aboli- 
tion had been decreed. The effect, then, of the constitutional con- 
cessions to and guarantees for slavery was to endow the slave States 
with unequal political power for two generations, and then to de- 
throne them and leave them prostrate and under the absolute control 
of the free States. 

The advantages which slavery and the slave-holding class derived 
from the guarantees of the Constitution were all temporary, and they 
all have disappeared. The compromises of the Constitution and 
the compromises under the Constitution are alike valueless. The 
annexation of Texas, the Mexican war, the struggles in Kansas, have 
all inured to the advantage of freedom. 

When the three provisions concerning slavery were embodied in 
the Constitution, a conflict was inevitable. Whenever, in a free 
government, a conflict arises upon a topic that engages the thought 
of the majority, the contestants will either appropriate existing 
parties to their service or they will create new ones. When slavery 
demanded new guarantees, neither of the then existing parties was 
prepared to resist the demand. Hence the Republican party was a 
necessity, and its organization has been the instrumentality by which 
the people have destroyed slavery, reformed the Constitution, and 
reconstructed the government upon the two cardinal principles of 
the equality of States and the equality of men. 

The contest is not ended. It will continue until the sentiments 
and traditions bred of slavery have disappeared from the States and 
communities once cursed by that institution. Hence the necessity 
remains for the continued existence of the Republican party. That 
party is the only political organization that is authorized to speak 



10 PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 

for or to defend what has been accomplished. The measures of 
which it may boast and on which its claim to continuing public 
confidence rests, have all been resisted, and often they have been 
denounced by the Democratic party. Execution of those measures 
yet remains to be done. 

The great struggle through which the nation has passed was accepted 
and continued by the Republican party for the purpose of abolishing 
those features of the Constitution which recognized injustice as a 
force in the government. So much has been accomplished, but 
injustice in the administration of the government still exists. The 
Democratic party as an organization profited by the injustice of 
slavery, and therefore it resisted the overthrow of slavery. It now 
profits by the intolerance and persecution that prevail in the old 
slave States. That intolerance and persecution it now defends. 

By the agency of the Republican party, and as a constitutional 
right, the equality of all men before the law has been secured ; but 
upon the Republican party rest the obligation and the duty of 
securing that right, as a practical and conceded right, to all the citi- 
zens of the United States. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE MISSOUEI COMPKOMISE AND ITS KEPEAL. 

IT would not be just to assume that the f ramers of the Constitution 
foresaw the evils which have flowed from the provisions relat- 
ing to slavery. Indeed, it is probable that the delegates from the 
South and the North alike expected the gradual destruction of the 
system, and that at no distant day. 

Cotton-raising in the United States was then an experimental and 
unproductive application of labor. The total export of cotton in 
the year 1800 was less than 90,000 bales, weighing 215 pounds each, 
and the domestic consumption in factories did not exceed 500 bales. 
At that time there were only three spinning-mills in America. In 
the year 1790 there was neither domestic demand nor foreign trade 
in cotton. In 1764 eight bags of American cotton were seized in 
Liverpool upon the allegation that it could not have been grown 
in America. When it was released the spinners neglected it, doubt- 
ing whether it could be worked profitably. 

Between the year 1788 and the year 1800 two inventions were 
made, which added immensely to the profits of the cotton culture 
and to the value of slave labor. Eli Whitney invented the cotton- 
gin, and Jacob Marshall invented the cotton-press. Whitney 
was from Westborough, and Marshall was from Lunenburg, both 
in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts. Previous to 
those inventions, the seeds of cotton had been separated from the lint 
by hand labor or by rude mechanical devices, and the cotton destined 
for market had been trodden in round sacks or bags. The invention 
of the cotton-gin, especially, stimulated the importation of slaves 
from Africa, added to their value in the tobacco and grain-growing 
sections, inaugurated the trade in slaves between the States of the 
Potomac and the States of the Gulf of Mexico, and finally added the 
lust of gain to the love for political power, as inducements for the 

ai) 



12 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REEEAL. 

extension and defense of the system of slavery. Then came into 
public view a class of moralists and theologians, who maintained the 
doctrine that the rude and savage negroes of Africa had been trans- 
ferred to a school of civilization and progress, and that slavery was 
not only not forbidden in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but 
that it was recognized and tolerated in all. Thus was slavery im- 
bedded in the Constitution, and protected by moral, theological, and 
financial defenses and defenders. Law, wealth, and theology had 
combined for its protection. 

In 1794 Congress passed penal statutes against the exportation of 
slaves from the United States, and prohibiting the use of American 
vessels for the transportation of slaves from one foreign country to 
another. This legislation satisfied the moral sentiment of the North, 
and promoted the pecuniary interests of the South. 

In 1807 Congress proceeded to enforce the Constitutional inhibition 
against the importation of slaves. By the statute of March 2, 1807, 
any person found guilty of being engaged in the foreign slave-trade 
was liable to imprisonment for not less than five nor more than ten 
years, and to a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars. The penalty 
of forfeiture was imposed upon vessels and their equipment, when 
found engaged in the slave-trade. 

In this statute, by the seventh section, a very important concession 
was made to slavery. It was provided that all negroes and mulattoes 
found on any vessel arrested in the slave-trade should be delivered to 
the authorities of the State into whose port the inculpated vessel was 
brought. Under this statute the State of Louisiana enacted a law that 
all negroes and mulattoes delivered to the Governor of that State by 
virtue of the statute of 1807 should be sold as slaves. The object of 
the seventh section of the statute of 1807 was the protection of the 
Slave States against the presence of free negroes. Its effect was to 
add to the slave population of the country. The statute of 1807 re- 
mained in force until 1819, when the captors of any vessel engaged 
in the slave-trade were required to deliver to the President of the 
United States all persons of color found on board such vessel. Pro- 
vision was made for the return of such persons to the coast of Africa. 

The Free States and the Slave States did not antagonize each other 
upon questions touching the suppression of the foreign slave-trade. 
Georgia and South Carolina had insisted upon the right to continue 
the importation of slaves from Africa as a check to the monopoly of 
slave labor in the northern Slave States. The continuance of the 



THE MISSOUHI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 13 

trade for twenty years was a compromise between the Free States and 
the northern Slave States on one side, and the States of the extreme 
South on the other. Under the influence of the same motives Vir- 
ginia and her associates of the border were willing to prohibit the 
foreign trade at the earliest day. They were also, and for the same 
reason, ready to provide for the return to Africa of all negroes found 
on board of slave-trading vessels. If Louisiana and her associates 
would have made them slaves, and if New York and her associates 
would have made them free, it was true that Virginia and her associ- 
ates were not prepared to accept either alternative. 

The return to Africa of all captured negroes may have been just, 
but manifestly it was a politic proceeding for the border Slave States. 
From 1789 to 1820 there was no other action by the Government of 
the United States which affected, or could in its results affect, the in- 
stitution of slavery. Of the thirteen colonies, seven had become Free 
States, and six were Slave States. Of the nine new States admitted 
into the Union previous to the year 1820, five were Slave States, and 
four were Free States. Thus an absolute equilibrium of political 
power had been established. Eleven States were Free States, and there 
were eleven States that maintained slavery. The establishment of 
this equilibrium, and the tendency to its overthrow, were the cause or 
the occasion of the bitter sectional struggle which, commencing in 
1820, even yet disturbs the harmony of the Republic. 

The pro-slavery provisions of the Constitution gave rise to that 
struggle, and in its progress the antagonizing parties became sec- 
tional. The Whig party disappeared, and the Democratic party 
abandoned its principles. 

The anti-slavery sentiment was organized in the Eepublican party, 
and so organized, it was destined to accomplish two historical results 
— the destruction of slavery, and the preservation of the Union. 

As the Whig party, as an organization, would neither oppose noi 
defend slavery, it could not command efficient support either North 
or South. The Democratic party passed through the successive 
stages of Constitutional protection to slavery, non-interference bji 
the National Government, the supremacy of the laws of nature ovei 
the question of slavery extension, and finally it subordinated its love 
for the Union, and yielded itself absolutely to the defense of the insti- 
tution of slavery. With the formation of the Confederacy the Dem- 
ocratic party ceased to exist in the rebel States, and in the North, 



14 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 

although it remained passive as an organization, it furnished a shelter 
to bodies of men who sympathized with the South. 

"When it was discovered by the leading men of the country that the 
equilibrium between the North and the South could not be preserved, 
the contest for supremacy began. 

The equality of States and of representation in the Senate could 
not be changed, except by the admission of new States into the Union; 
but the increase of population in the contending sections could not be 
controlled by statutes, and at the close of every decennial period there 
was a new distribution of power in the House of Representatives and 
in the electoral colleges. 

The re-distribution of political power was required by the Consti- 
tution, and thus by the Constitution was the equilibrium between 
the Free and Slave States destroyed. In 1790 the representative power 
of the Slave States to the Free States was as 87 to 100; in 1800 it was 
as 85 to 100; in 1810 it was as 92 to 100; in 1820 it was as 88 to 100. 

The loss from 1810 to 1820 made it manifest that the equality of 
the South could not be maintained in the House of Representatives. 
It was then that the District of Maine applied for admission into the 
Union as a State. By the treaty of 1803 with France the territory 
of Louisiana was ceded to the United States. France had acquired 
the territory of Spain by a treaty made in 1763. It was claimed that 
the territory of Louisiana included all the country west of the Mis- 
sissippi, except a small region near the Gulf of Mexico. Slavery 
existed in the territory. The application of Maine for admission 
into the Union was met by an application by the inhabitants of a 
portion of the territory of Missouri for admission as a Slave State. 
Missouri had been formed out of the original territory of Louisiana. 
After a long and bitter contest, the act for the admission of Maine was 
approved March 3, 1820, and on the sixth day of the same month an 
act was passed, authorizing the inhabitants of Missouri to form a 
constitution, and providing for the admission of the territory into 
the Union as a State. By the eighth section of that act slavery was 
prohibited in the territory acquired by the treaty of 1803, north of the 
parallel 36° 30'. Missouri was north of that parallel, but the new State 
was excepted from the inhibition. It was a hope, if not a confident 
belief on the part of the South, that Slave States could be formed 
from the territory south of that line, in set-off to the States that 
might be formed from the territory north of that line. 

Arkansas was admitted into the Union in 1836, and in 1837 the 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 15 

equilibrium of States was re-established by the admission of Mich- 
igan. It then became apparent that the equality of States could not 
be maintained through the next decade. Of slave territory only 
Florida remained, while in the North there was the vast waste out of 
which the States of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, 
and Nebraska have been organized. The greatness of the future of 
these States was not foreseen, but their coming was anticipated and 
accepted on all sides as of the inevitable. The equilibrium of repre- 
sentation in the House had been destroyed, and the struggle was 
therefore intensified for the preservation of the equality of the Slave 
States in the Senate. As the slave-holding class ruled the South, it 
was possible always for that class to decide a presidential election, 
and hence the whig and democratic parties were rival bidders for 
southern support. The presidency was sold in the market. The 
South usually dictated the candidates of each party, and, unless the 
election of Harrison in 1840 was an exception, the South achieved a 
victory in every contest from 1828 to 1856 inclusive. 

By the aid of organized bodies of men from the United States, and 
chiefly from the South, the State of Texas had declared its independ- 
ence of Mexico, and organized a separate government. The govern- 
ing force in Texas was composed largely of immigrants from the 
Slave States. Their policy was dictated by Southern statesmen, 
and directed to the annexation to the United States of the "Lone Star 
State," as Texas was then called. By the death of President Harri- 
son, in April, 1841, John Tyler succeeded to the presidency. By 
birth, political training, and sectional feeling, he was allied to the 
slave-holding class, and his public policy was directed to the annex- 
ation of Texas as the leading and historical measure of his adminis- 
tration. In the canvass of 1844 Mr. Clay represented the Whig 
party, and Mr. Polk the Democratic party. Both of those men were 
in the interest of slavery. Mr. Polk made no claim to anti-slavery 
opinions. He was an open advocate of the annexation of Texas. 
Mr. Clay may have had misgivings as to the system of slavery, but 
he was wanting in principle, or he lacked the courage to make a 
declaration of his real opinions, if they were hostile to the institution. 
The Whig party of the North was opposed to the annexation of 
Texas, but during the campaign Mr. Clay made a public surrender 
on the question, and by that surrender he lost the State of New 
York and the presidency. 

The election of Mr. Polk was treated as an endorsement of the 



16 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 

scheme, and the outgoing Congress, by a joint resolution approved 
March 1, 1845, provided for the annexation of Texas to the United 
States. The resolution contained a guarantee that States, not exceed- 
ing five in all, might be formed out of the territory, and admitted 
into the Union under the provisions of the federal constitution. 
The States formed out of the territory south of 36° 30' were to be 
admitted into the Union, either with or without slavery, as the people 
of each State asking admission might desire. In the States formed 
out of territory north of that line, slavery and involuntary servitude, 
except as a punishment of crime, were prohibited. As in the end 
there was no territory north of fhe line 36° 30', slavery gained one 
State in the outset, with the prospect of acquiring four other States, 
while the North gained nothing by the inhibition. Thus was an 
open way made for the organization of new Slave States, to be used 
in set-off against the coming States of the north-west. 

The admission of Texas into the Union presented a fresh opportu- 
nity to the South, but it was an opportunity fraught with the gravest 
peril. When Texas declared its independence it named the Rio 
Grande as its southern boundary. On the other hand, Mexico made 
claim to the territory between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River. 
By annexation the United States accepted the controversy, and the 
war which then existed between Texas and Mexico. Mr. Polk was 
President. General Taylor was ordered to the left bank of the Rio 
Grande, near Matamoras. His army was first termed an army of 
observation, then an army of occupation, and finally it became an 
army of invasion. In the month of May, 1846, the war opened 
which ended in the capture of the City of Mexico by General Scott, 
and the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, signed the second day of Feb- 
ruary, 1848, by which a vast territory, including New Mexico and 
Upper California, was ceded to the United States. Tne Missouri 
compromise line had been extended across Texas by the joint resolu- 
tion of March 1, 1845, but now the acquisition of a vast area, both 
north and south of that line, gave fresh consequence to the slavery 
issue. Of the new acquisition California alone contained a popula- 
tion sufficient for a State, and the larger part of its area, and much 
the larger part of its inhabitants, were north of the line 36° 30». The 
Union was then composed of fifteen Slave States and fifteen Free 
States. The admission of California, whether as a Slave State or a 
Free State, would destroy the equilibrium- By the census of 1850 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 17 

the representative power of the Slave States to the Free States was 
as 63 to 100. 

The equilibrium in the House of Representatives and the Electoral 
Colleges had been destroyed, and beyond recovery. The cotton-gin 
had not only stimulated the growth of cotton, and increased the 
value of slaves, it had also stimulated the manufacture of cotton 
goods in the north and east, enhanced the wages of labor, added to 
the comforts of the laboring classes, and thereby encouraged immi- 
gration to the North. 

In another form slavery itself contributed to the overthrow of the 
slave power. Wherever slavery existed manual labor was dishonored ; 
and hence all the immigrants from Europe who had not the means 
and the ambition to become landholders chose their homes in the 
Free States. By the force of these combined agencies and influences 
the representative power of the South was broken down. By the 
annexation of Texas, the consequent war with Mexico, ending with 
the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, California was presented for 
admission into the Union as a free State, and at a time when the 
control of the House of Representatives was irretrievably lost to the 
South. 

In this exigency Mr. Calhoun's dying speech was read in the 
Senate, March 4, 1850, by James M. Mason, of Virginia. He admitted 
the overthrow of the equilibrium between the Free and the Slave 
States, and he attributed it to the action of the general government. 
He closed with a demand for an amendment to the Constitution, by 
which equality of political power should be guaranteed to the South, 
and he coupled the demand with a threat of secession in case it 
should be refused. But Mr. Calhoun had then lost faith in the per- 
manence of the institution. There is good reason to believe, but not 
the means to prove, that Mr. Calhoun, a few months before his 
death, said to a friend, " Slavery will go down, sir; it will go down 
in the twinkling of an eye, sir." His Essay on Government contained 
a statement of his plan for preserving, or rather for re-establishing 
the equilibrium between the Free States and the Slave States. He 
advocated an amendment of the Constitution, which should provide 
for two" presidents, one from the South and one from the North. 
Their powers were to be equal, and consequently every executive act 
would require the concurrence of both presidents. The scheme was 
designed, manifestly, to effect a dissolution of the Union, and under 
2 



18 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 

circumstances which would enable each party to charge the responsi- 
bility upon the other. 

The people of California framed a Constitution without the authority 
of Congress, and resistance to its admission into the Union was put 
upon that ground. 

That position was a pretext. The exclusion of slavery was in fact 
the real reason. The bill for the admission of California was ap- 
proved the 9th day of September, 1850. It was silent upon the sub- 
ject of slavery, but two other bills were approved the same day — one 
for the organization of the Territory of New Mexico and the adjust- 
ment of the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, and the other 
for the organization of the Territory of Utah. Although the whole 
of the Territory of Utah was north of the line 36° 30', and although a 
part of New Mexico was also north of that line, both statutes con- 
tained a provision that the States that might be formed out of said 
Territories should be received into the Union with or without slavery, 
as their Constitutions might prescribe. These three measures, and the 
bill for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, 
and the bill for the surrender of fugitives from slavery, were carried 
under the lead of Mr. Clay. To Texas the sum of ten million dollars 
was paid for a surrender to New Mexico of the territory north of 
36° 30', and thus were the Free States led to abandon whatever 
advantage was contemplated by the extension of the Missouri compro- 
mise line across Texas, by the joint resolution of March 1, 1845. 

All the territory of Louisiana was slave territory at the time of its 
purchase from France in 1803. Hence the application of the Mis- 
souri compromise line was a gain to the free States, inasmuch as the 
region of country north of the line 36° 30' was relieved of slavery 
and consecrated to freedom. 

All the territory acquired of Mexico by the treaty of Gaudaloupe 
Hidalgo was free territory. Hence the provision in the statutes for 
the organization of New Mexico and Utah, by which the question of 
slavery was remitted to the inhabitants who might occupy those Ter- 
ritories when they should apply for admission into the Union, was a 
concession to slavery. Slavery was thereby made possible in a Terri- 
tory theretofore free. Except for slavery, the question of the admis- 
sion of California would have been considered by itself. 

As the death of President Harrison in 1841 had made the annexa- 
tion of Texas possible during the term for which he had been elected, 
so the death of President Taylor in July, 1850, made it possible for 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 19 

the slave-holders to secure the surrender of Utah and New Mexico to, 
the chances of slavery. It was understood that General Taylor was 
opposed to the compromise measures of 1850. The most offensive of 
those measures was the Fugitive Slave bill. 

When these measures of compromise and conciliation had passed 
into statutes, and thus were made binding upon the country, their 
advocates and supporters North and South announced a peace — abso- 
lute and continuing peace — upon the subject of slavery. On that 
declaration the Democratic party achieved an easy victory in 1852. 

One generation of men had been witnesses of and participants in 
the series of contests upon the subject of slavery, commencing in 1820 
and ending in 1850. 

In every instance the demand of the South had been accompanied 
by a threat that in case of failure the Union should be dissolved. By 
this threat, and by the assertion of its power to elect a President of 
either party, it subjected the political organizations of the country to 
its will, and reduced an entire generation of statesmen to a condition 
of moral and political servitude. In the presence of an attempt to 
nullify the laws of the Union, and, under the lead of General Jackson, 
a successful resistance was made in 1832 to the demand of the slave- 
holders. Their policy, however, was not changed. Indeed, the 
leaders in the treasonable scheme of nullification, including Mr. Cal- 
houn, were soon restored to public confidence and advanced to new 
places of trust and power. In fine, as nullification was a means by 
which the slave-holders attempted to assert their power in the gov- 
ernment of the country, and as the leaders in nullification were the 
leaders of the Democratic party of the South, and as the Democratic 
party of the country was dependent upon the Southern Democracy, 
the National Democratic party had no alternative but to recognize 
the leaders in nullification as leaders also in political affairs. Hence 
the defeat of nullification as a movement did not work the defeat and 
exile from politics of the leaders and apostles of that heresy. As 
long as slavery was a force in politics, and as long as the Democratic 
party was subject to that force, the leaders of the South were sure of 
place and power in the government of the country. 

When the thirty-second Congress was about to end, a bill was 
introduced for the organization of the Territory of Nebraska. 
This bill was reported by Senator Richardson, a Democrat from 
Illinois, and it was supported by Senator Douglas from the same 
State. That bill recognized the exclusion of slavery, and ; therefore, 



20 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 

it was defeated under the lead of Senators from the South. Soon 
after the organization of the Thirty-third Congress in December, 
1853, bills were introduced for the organization of the Territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska. Senator Dixon, a Whig from Kentucky, 
gave notice of an amendment abrogating the Missouri Compromise. 

That suggestion was adopted by Senator Douglas of Illinois, and 
he thus became the responsible author of the scheme to repeal the 
compromise of 1820. 

It was claimed that the concessions made in the bills for the organ- 
ization of Utah and New Mexico were an abandonment of the princi- 
ples of the compromise of 1820, inasmuch as the inhabitants of those 
Territories were endowed with power to establish or prohibit slavery. 
The claim had some foundation in the fact that all of Utah and part 
of New Mexico were north of the parallel 36° 30', but there was a 
careful concealment of the claim when the compromise measures of 
1850 were before Congress and the country. It is a violent presump- 
tion that Mr. Webster and others whose opinions were in harmony 
with northern opinion, anticipated the claim thus based on the 
compromise measures of 1850, but it is no compliment to their 
intelligence to assume that they did not comprehend the nature and 
scope of the concession then made. 

At the opening of the Thirty-third Congress President Pierce 
congratulated the country upon the settlement of the slavery contro- 
versy, and he volunteered the pledge that the repose then enjoyed 
should suffer no check if he had the power to avert it. The sincerity 
of his pledge cannot be questioned, but in proportion to its sincerity 
is the evidence of the power of slavery in compelling him to violate it, 
and to involve his administration and the country in the horrors of 
civil war on the plains of Kansas. 

Mr. Douglas was the champion of the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise. Many artful phrases were coined in the vain hope that tne 
true intent and meaning of the act might be concealed from the pub- 
lic. The great facts could not be concealed. By the compromise of 
1820 a vast region of country had been dedicated to freedom. By the 
repealing act of 1854 that country had been opened to slavery. 

In the then excited condition of the public mind, the Territories 
were made the theatres of civil war. 

The supporters of slavery and the devotees of freedom were invited 
to a contest of arms for the adjustment of a question which might and 
should have been settled by Congress. But if it had been so settled, 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND ITS REPEAL. 21 

the conflict would have been continued between the two forms of 
civilization, born, one of freedom, and the other of slavery. With- 
out the spirit of prophecy, the declaration may be made safely that 
the civilization born of freedom would have triumphed in the end. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise precipitated and made in- 
evitable the contest of arms between the two forms of civilization, 
and in that contest the civilization of freedom was victorious. 

It is no answer to say that the population of the North exceeded 
the population of the South. That excess was due to its superior 
civilization as certainly as was its supremacy in commerce, in manu- 
factures, and in the inventive arts. 

The words of repeal are these : " That the Constitution and all laws 
of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the 
same force and effect within the Territory of Kansas as elsewhere 
within the United States, except the eighth section of the Act prepar- 
atory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 
sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which, being inconsistent with 
the principles of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eighteen 
hundred and fifty, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is 
hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and 
meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or 
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." 

It is no exaggeration to say that never elsewhere has a sentence of 
the English language been so freighted with consequences as was 
this. It invited the representatives of thirty million people to bloody 
strife on the borders of Missouri and the plains of Kansas; it anni- 
hilated the Whig party; it divided the Democratic party of the 
North ; it organized, consolidated, and made invincible the Republi- 
can party of the Union, and finally it involved the country in a civil 
war, in which not less than two million American citizens took part, 
and not less than four hundred thousand gave their lives. All this 
was the fruit of the alliance between the slave-holders of the South 
and the Democratic party of the North. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ORGANIZATION OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, THE CONTEST 
-IN KANSAS, AND THE ELECTION OP 1856. 

HHHE formation of a new political party, or the regeneration of an 
-*- old one, is due always to events, and not to the schemes and 
purposes of men, except as events sometimes originate in such pur- 
poses and schemes. 

It is a weak exhibition of genius and an utter waste of power, to 
attempt the creation of a new party by the force of mere will. On 
the other hand, when events demand a new party, or the re-organiza- 
tion of an old one, all resistance is borne down speedily. 

The Republican party was the child of events. The pro-slavery 
provisions of the Constitution, the foreign slave-rade, the acquisi- 
tion of Louisiana, the Missouri Compromise, the nullification scheme 
of South Carolina, the colonization and annexation of Texas, the 
Mexican War, the contest over the admission of California, the com- 
promise measures of 1850, and finally the repeal of the Missouri com- 
promise in 1854, were the events which rendered the formation of an 
anti-slavery party inevitable. 

Its name was an incident only, and an unimportant incident ; its 
principles and its purposes were the vital facts. No one can say why 
its organization was so long delayed; no one can say why its organi- 
zation was not yet farther postponed. 

During the colonial period and the years of confederation, the 
antagonism between slavery and freedom, or rather between the 
institutions of slavery and the institutions of freedom, had not taken 
form ; but the inherent antagonism was organized in and developed 
under the Constitution, and for seventy years a struggle for the mas- 
tery went on. In every contest slavery had triumphed, and in every 
contest its victory was due to an alliance with one or both of the 
old political parties, — more frequently with the Democratic party. 

This experience had destroyed confidence in the aged, this history 

(22) 



ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 23 

had engendered suspicions in the young. Consequently, upon the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Democratic party of the 
North was divided, and the Whig party, as a national organization, 
ceased to exist. 

As these bodies of Democrats and Whigs had rebelled against the 
political parties with which they had been identified, and for the same 
cause, they were driven necessarily into an alliance for self-defense as 
well as for the purpose of forming a barrier to the progress of slavery. 

Neither men nor parties are the masters of events, and it is quite 
certain that the majority of the Republican party did not, at the 
time of its organization, anticipate its career and power in changing 
the institutions and controlling the fortunes of the country. There 
Was, in the nature of the case, entire agreement upon the question 
of slavery extension, and a general concurrence in the opinion that 
persons arrested as fugitives from service should be surrendered only 
upon a verdict of a jury; but there was a divided sentiment as to the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and a very general 
opposition to any interference with the institution in the States where 
it then existed. 

It is to be admitted that the history of the Republican party is a 
singular commentary upon its first declaration of principles at Phil- 
adelphia, in 1856. There is in that declaration no reference* to 
slavery in the States, to slavery in the District of Columbia, or to 
the rendition of fugitives from service. It demands the admission 
of Kansas as a Free State, and it denounces the proceedings in that 
territory, and especially the military and judicial usurpations, by 
which the people had been deprived of life, liberty, and property, 
without due process of law. Slavery and polygamy in the territories 
were condemned, and the projects for a railway to the Pacific Ocean, 
and the improvement of the rivers and harbors, were commended as 
within the scope of national authority. The platform was silent 
npon the questions of protection and free trade. 

These declarations seem ridiculously weak and unaggressive, when 
measured and judged by the great movements and policies which the 
Republican party has originated, defended, and carried forward to 
final success. It met tlje enemy, however, at the point of attack. 
The South asserted its right to establish slavery in all the Union,— 
In the territory of Washington as well as in Kansas. 

The Philadelphia platform declared that it was the legal right and 
the political and moral duty of the national government to prohibit 






24 ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

slavery in all the territories of the Union, — South as well as North. 
Thus was the issue made between slavery and freedom. The South- 
ern leaders well knew that when slavery was limited to existing 
territory it must begin to die. Limitation of the institution was not 
only loss of political power, it was abolition in a mild way, but in a 
way that led to the certain destruction of the system. 

The devotion to slavery of one half of the Union for a period of 
seventy years, and the tolerance of the institution by the other half 
of the Union will, in a further like period of time, become the marvel 
of history. Other and not far distant generations of men, in the 
South as well as in the North, will be unable to comprehend the 
public sentiment of the age in which we are living. The institution 
of slavery has passed away ; but the traditions, ideas, and habits of 
life bred by slavery yet linger among us. The Republican party, 
even, is not free from the influence of those ideas, traditions, and 
habits of life, and the Democratic party submits itself to their 
control as in the days of slavery. In large portions of the South the 
right of the negro to vote is denied practically by the suppression of 
the vote itself. The remedy of this wrong is within the scope of 
the original purpose of the Republican party, if its action in regard 
to slavery in the District of Columbia and in the States can be 
defended successfully. 

It is not good ground for the charge of hypocrisy or insincerity, 
that a party does not at the outset unfold its purposes. The Revolu- 
tionary party did not announce its purpose to secure the independ- 
ence of the colonies. Indeed, from 1765 to 1770, it asserted the con- 
trary ; but when, by long and painful experience, the leaders became 
convinced that equality of rights could not be secured under the 
union with Great Britain, they then resolved to destroy that union. 
Events were their masters. 

In 1856 the exclusion of slavery from the territories was the leading 
issue between the contestants. The controversy over that issue led 
to secession, war, the abolition of slavery, the constitutional amend- 
ments, and the reconstruction of the government upon the basis of 
those amendments. As these events succeeded each other the Repub- 
lican party had no choice of ways. It resisted secession, prosecuted 
the war, overthrew slavery, adopted the amendments to the constitu- 
tion, and reconstructed the government upon the basis of the equality 
of men and the equality of States. The old government recognized 
the equality of States, and disregarded the equality of men. The 



ORGANIZATION OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 25 

new government asserts tlie doctrine that the equality of men is the 
only security for the equality of States. The Republican party 
asserts the equality of men as the only sure basis of the equality of 
•States. 

The Democratic party maintains the equality of States, and denies 
the equality of men. This is the issue, the constitutional issue born 
of slavery, and its sole survivor. And here again the Republican 
party has no choice of ways. If it were indifferent to every consid- 
eration not purely selfish, it would yet have no choice of ways. It 
has created a new system of finance, and it has identified itself in its 
history and in its policy with the doctrine of protection to domestic 
labor. Into those two policies are woven the interest of every cap- 
italist, and the means of support of every workman in the North, 
and those policies can never be secure until the equality of men is 
recognized, and its benefits are enjoyed practically by the former 
slaves of the South. 

In the old Slave States there are one million citizens of the United 
States whose votes should be received and counted in every State 
and national election, and it is probable that more than one-half of 
those men are deprived of their rights, either by force or fraud. This 
denial of the equality of men destroys the equality of States, and 
puts in jeopardy the financial and economical prosperity of the 
country. And thus again is the spirit of selfishness made subservient 
to the cause of justice. 

Upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise Kansas became the 
theatre of civil war. To that entertainment, indeed, the country 
was invited. The Democratic party was in power at Washington, 
and its influence was given to the scheme of making Kansas a Slave 
State. The South sent men and money. The North sent men and 
money. Contests of blood occurred, ruffian raids were tolerated, if 
not encouraged, towns were burned, hostile legislatures assembled, 
antagonizing constitutional conventions met, and vain appeals were 
made for the admission of the territory into the Union as a State. 
That event was postponed until January, 1861, but these proceedings 
of disorder and blood compacted and strengthened the Republican 
party for the struggles and responsibilities that it was soon to meet. 



CHAPTER IV. 



*HE SENATORIAL CONTEST OP 1858 IN ILLINOIS, AND THE ELECTION 
OF MR. LINCOLN IN 1860. 

THE Republican party of the State of Illinois held a convention at 
Springfield, June 17, 1858, and nominated Abraham Lincoln for 
the seat in the United States Senate then held by Stephen A. Doug- 
las. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln was anticipated, and he had 
prepared a speech, which he then delivered. In that speech he set 
forth the doctrines of the Republican party, arraigned the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Buchanan, and denounced the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise under the lead of Senator Douglas. That speech inau- 
gurated a discussion which has no equal in the history of American 
politics. It introduced Mr. Lincoln to the country generally, and 
prepared the way for his nomination to the Presidency two years 
later. 

In that speech, Mr. Lincoln made the declaration, then char- 
acterized as extravagant, but accepted, finally, as prophetic: "I 
believe this Government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
half free." 

On this phrase Mr. Douglas based many arguments, in the vain 
attempt to prove that Mr. Lincoln was a disunionist. The context 
showed that Mr. Lincoln attempted only to establish the proposition 
that a tendency towards freedom, or a tendency towards slavery, 
must, in the nature of the case, be developed, and that the Union 
would in time become all slave or all free. 

In that speech, and in the debate that followed, he character- 
ized the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as a step towards making 
the Union all slave, and he contrasted the act with the ordinance of 
1787 for the government of the Northwestern Territory, by which all 
the unoccupied lands within the jurisdiction of the old Confederacy 
were made forever free. 



ELECTION OF LINCOLN IN 1860. 27 

Mr. Lincoln claimed, and claimed justly, that at the formation of 
the Union the opinion was entertained generally that the institution 
of slavery was temporary. The ordinance of 1787 made it local. 
The magnitude of the surrender under the lead of Mr. Douglas 
may be best expressed in the statement that at the time of the adop- 
tion of the Constitution there was not one foot of territory outside 
the jurisdiction of the thirteen States that was not dedicated to free- 
dom ; and that after the passage of the act for the organization of 
Kansas, there was not one foot of territory within the jurisdiction of 
the United States that was not open to slavery. 

Mr. Lincoln's first fame rests on that great debate. Judge Douglas 
was an experienced politician and a skillful debater. He had already 
taken a place amongst the able men of his time. In the month of 
June Mr. Lincoln was unknown outside of Illinois and Indiana. In 
September his character was understood and his ability was recog- 
nized in all the non-slave-holding States of the Union. His mastery 
over Douglas had been complete. His logic was unanswerable, his 
ridicule was fatal, and every position taken by him was defended 
successfully. At the end Douglas had but one recourse. He mis- 
stated Lincoln's positions, and then assailed them; but Lincoln was 
ever ready to expose the fallacies, and to hold up their author to the 
derision or condemnation of his hearers. 

In the month of September Mr. Lincoln delivered a speech at Cin- 
cinnati, in reply to Mr. Douglas. In that speech he addressed him- 
self to the citizens of Kentucky, and advocated the nomination of 
Mr. Douglas to the Presidency, upon the ground that he was more 
devoted to the South than were the Southern leaders themselves, and 
that he was wiser in methods for defending their rights. This was a 
form of attack which Douglas did not anticipate, and which he could 
neither resent nor answer. 

In all that debate it was the constant effort of Mr. Douglas to pre- 
sent Mr. Lincoln as the opponent of the Constitution and the Union. 
That effort led Mr. Lincoln to place himself conspicuously upon Con- 
stitutional, Union ground. The sentiments that he thus expressed 
and taught were woven into all the platforms of the party in every 
section of the country. To those sentiments he adhered when he be- 
came President, and in every step of his great career he tested his 
acts by the fundamental law. He aided in the organization of the 
Republican party, and to him more than to any one else is the party 
indebted for its character, its measures, its success. He is the first 






28 SENATORIAL CONTEST IN 1858 IN ILLINOIS. 

personage of its history, and the second personage in the history of 
the Republic. 

The nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago in May, 1860, was not 
accomplished without a severe contest, nor without doubts and mis- 
givings on the part of many members of the convention. Mr. Sew- 
ard was the recognized leader of the party, and he was supported by 
the State of New York. The State of Ohio presented Mr. Chase, 
who in standing and influence was second only to Mr. Seward. The 
votes of Pennsylvania were given for General Cameron, and thus the 
three leading Republican States were divided. 

After several ballots, the nomination of Mr. Lincoln was made. 
The result was received with enthusiasm in the Northwestern States, 
with feelings of disappointment in New York, but with hope and 
confidence elsewhere. By the month of September all disappoint- 
ments had been allayed, and the party was not united merely, it was 
compacted as firmly as was ever any military organization. It was 
sustained by its principles and rendered enthusiastic by the certainty 
of success. 

The declarations made at Chicago were aggressive, and in many par- 
ticulars the platform of 1860 was a contrast to, rather than a growth 
from, that of 1856. It asserted that the normal condition of all the ter- 
ritory of the United States was that of freedom ; it denounced the 
outrages in Kansas, and demanded its immediate admission into the 
Union with her Constitution as a free State ; it branded the re-open- 
ing of the African slave-trade as a crime, and in expressing the abhor- 
rence of the Republican party to all schemes of disunion, the Demo- 
cratic party was arraigned for its silence in the presence of threats of 
secession made by its own members. The doctrine of encouragement 
to domestic industry was announced, the sale of the public lands 
was condemned, the coming measure of securing homesteads for the 
landless was approved, and a pledge of protection was given to all 
citizens, whether native or naturalized, and whether at home or 
abroad. 

The party was again pledged to the construction of a railway to the 
Pacific Ocean, and to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of 
the country. 

In the primary declaration, the platform asserted the necessity for 
the existence of the Republican party, coupled with the assurance of 
its permanency. 

It was assumed in the platform that the Republican party was soon 






ELECTION OF LINCOLN IN 1860. 29 

to enter upon the work of administering the Government. It pledged 
itself to economy, to the Union, to the rights of the States, and to 
unending hostility to every form of human servitude. 

The aggregate popular vote exceeded four million six hundred and 
eighty thousand, and of the total one million eight hundred and sixty- 
six thousand votes were given for Mr. Lincoln, and of the three hun- 
dred and three electoral votes, he received one hundred and eighty. 
The Democratic party was divided. Mr. Breckinridge, the candidate 
of the South, received eight hundred and forty-seven thousand votes 
and seventy-two votes in the Electoral College, while Mr. Douglas 
received only twelve electoral votes, although his popular vote reached 
a million three hundred and seventy-five thousand. John Bell re- 
ceived thirty-nine electoral votes on a popular vote of less than six 
hundred thousand. The popular vote for Mr. Lincoln was nearly a 
half -million less than a majority; but his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, 
was also a minority President. 

Eleven States voted for Mr. Breckinridge, and of these, all, except 
Delaware and Maryland, became members of the Confederacy. The 
States of Virginia and Tennessee, that had voted for Mr. Bell, sup- 
plied the places in the Confederacy made vacant by the absence of 
Maryland and Delaware. The result showed that the Democratic 
party, as represented by Mr, Breckinridge, was in fact a secession 
party as well. The division of the Democratic party decided the 
election in favor of Mr. Lincoln. 

Had that party supported Mr. Douglas in good faith, his election 
would have been secured, probably; but the South would have been 
left without excuse, if it had persisted in the scheme of seces- 
sion. Therefore it came to pass that the Democratic party was dis- 
organized by its own leaders, as a step preliminary to the election of 
Mr. Lincoln and the secession of the States of the South. 

The election of Mr. Lincoln was made the pretext for disunion, but 
the leaders must have known that he would be powerless to do any 
act or thing contrary to their Constitutional rights while the members 
of Congress from the South retained their seats in the Senate and 
House of Representatives. They had, however, only a choice of 
ways. It was not possible to hold seats in the Congress of the United 
States and at the same time to organize a hostile government. If 
Jefferson Davis was to become the President of the Confederacy, it 
was necessary for him to surrender his seat in the Senate of the 



30 SENATORIAL CONTEST IN 1858 IN ILLINOIS. 

United States. A like necessity attended the leading men by whom 
he was supported. 

It was also the necessity of their situation that the new govern- 
ment should be organized during the administration of Mr. Buchanan. 
It is not necessary to assume any private understanding between the 
President and the leaders of secession. His message of December, 
1860, contained declarations which justified Mr. Davis and his asso- 
ciates in assuming that Mr. Buchanan would not interfere with the 
organization of the new government. Of Mr. Lincoln, and of the 
administration that he might form, nothing could then be known. 

Mr. Buchanan denied the right of secession as a Constitutional 
right, but he also denied to the Government of the United States all 
power under the Constitution to prevent secession by force. As a 
consequence the Union could exist only by the concurring and con- 
tinuing consent of each and every State. Hence it was competent in 
fact, if not in law, for a majority of the voters in the smallest State, 
as Delaware, for example, to declare the Union at an end. Thus it 
came to pass that the Constitutional opinions of the President har- 
monized with the purposes of the secessionists. They took the respon- 
sibility of seceding from the Union, and the President took the 
responsibility of announcing that the general Government had no 
power under the Constitution to interfere with their undertaking. 

Denying the right of the National Government to preserve its exis- 
tence by force, the opinions of the President upon the abstract Con- 
stitutional question of the right of secession were of no practical 
value whatever. 

Upon the admission of Mr. Buchanan, the Union ceased to exist on 
the 17th day of December, 1860, when the State of South Carolina 
adopted the ordinance of secession. It followed from Mr. Buchanan's 
position that the war, and all the incidents and consequences of the 
war, were unconstitutional. 

The weakness of his position was shown by the impotence of the 
conclusions to which he was driven. Having surrendered all right of 
jurisdiction over the territory and people of South Carolina, he yet 
attempted to assert a right of property in the custom-houses and forts 
that had been constructed by the United States, although he could 
not visit those custom-houses and forts except as an act of war. 
Upon his theory of the Government, Mr. Buchanan was President 
from the 17th of December, 1860, to the 4th of March, 1881, of a part 
only of the country that had elected him to office. 



p 

ELECTION OP LINCOLN IN 1860. 31 

Thus, by the aggressive acts of one wing of the Democratic party, 
and the nonaction of the representatives of the whole party, the 
Union ceased to exist. One wing of the party said the Union had no 
right to exist. The other wing of the party said the Union had no 
Constitutional right to maintain its existence by force. Standing in 
the presence of the facts that existed the 22d day of February, 1861, 
and with a knowledge of the opinions entertained by Mr. Buchanan, 
the conclusion is outside of the realm of controversy that if he had 
had two years more of official life, the Confederacy would have been 
established firmly and recognized by the leading nations of the world. 

The Union was dismembered and surrendered by the Democratic 
party. 

The Union was re-established by the Republican party. 






CHAPTER V. 



THE INAUGURATION OF MR. LINCOLN, AND THE POLITICAL AND 
MILITARY QUESTIONS THEN FORCED UPON THE COUNTRY. 

MR. BUCHANAN'S denial of the constitutional right of seces- 
sion was an impotent abstraction in presence of his declara- 
tion that the national government had not a constitutional right to 
preserve its existence by force. The position of Mr. Buchanan was 
more favorable to the South than any other that he could have chosen. 
The only peril of the South was war on the part of the national gov- 
ernment. 

Under the administration of Mr. Buchanan there could be no war. 
His assertion of the right of property in the custom-houses, forts, and 
arsenals, implied the use of force for their recovery and possession, 
but jurisdiction over the remaining territory of a State was still 
to be exercised by the State. With that jurisdiction conceded, of 
what use to the national government would have been the possession 
of custom-houses, arsenals, and. forts? In a short period of time 
they would have been surrendered to the State authorities. 

The effect of his position was to unite the South by relieving the 
timid and conservative elements of all fear of war. He thus made it 
possible for the advocates of immediate secession to say that the only 
thing needed was the courage to act, as the act would be accepted as 
an accomplished fact. 

If Mr. Buchanan had asserted the right of secession, his influence 
with the democratic party of the North would have been greatty di- 
minished if not destroyed utterly; but his qualified position was sus- 
tained apparently by all of the democratic voters in the Free States 
who had not supported Mr. Douglas. Mr. Buchanan's policy con- 
solidated the South and divided the North. 

(32) 



THE INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN. 33 

Mr Lincoln asserted his own position in his inaugural address, and 
thus indirectly he controverted the position occupied by Mr. Buchanan. 
Mr. Buchanan denied the right of secession and admitted the fact; 
Mr. Lincoln denied the right and the fact as well. 

A portion of the inaugural address is devoted to a critical analysis 
of the government, to which Mr. Lincoln added these significant 
sentences: "It follows from these views, that no State, upon its own 
mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and 
ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence, 
within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, 
are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. 
I, therefore, consider that in view of the constitution and the laws, 
the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take 
. care, as the constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the 
laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States." 

This declaration did not stop with the assertion of the right of 
property in custom-houses, forts, and arsenals ; it announced a pur- 
pose to collect the revenues, to keep open the courts, to maintain the 
post-offices within the limits, and to carry the mails and transport 
troops and munitions of war over the territory of every State of the 
Union. It was an assertion of jurisdiction, with an assertion of all 
the powers incident to jurisdiction. Resistance on the part of any 
State to the exercise of that jurisdiction would be insurrection or 
revolution. Mr. Lincoln put the responsibility upon the disaffected 
States. He well knew, however, that they must either abandon the 
scheme of secession, or resist the jurisdiction of the United States. 
Indeed, South Carolina and other States had already asserted exclu- 
sive jurisdiction by seizing custom-houses and forts, and substituting 
State flags for the flag of the United States. 

Under the lead of Mr. Buchanan it was impossible to re-establish 
the Union, as it had been impossible for him to preserve it. On the 
other hand, Mr. Lincoln did not admit that in a legal view the Union 
had been destroyed, and he announced his purpose to preserve it. He 
did not admit the right of secession, and he claimed that the so-called 
ordinances of secession were null and void. 

Under a Democratic administration, and by the consent of its head. 
the Union was destroyed in fact if not in law. Under a Republican 
administration the Union was re-established in fact, as it existed in 
contemplation of law. 

The months between the election in November and the inaugura- 
3 






34 THE INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN. 

tion in March were filled with rumors of schemes to assassinate Mr. 
Lincoln, and to seize the Capital. Whether these rumors had a 
foundation may not be known, but they so far influenced Mr. Lin- 
coln's friends that he was induced to conceal his movements over the 
route from Harrisburg to Washington. 

When Mr. Lincoln became President, all the forts, arsenals, and 
custom-houses in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Florida, excepting only Forts Sumter, Pickens, Jef- 
ferson, and Taylor had been seized, and all their property, movable 
and immovable, had been converted to the use of the Confederate 
States. Mr. Lincoln's legal position was such that he would have 
been justified in a resort to force for their recovery. It was his pur- 
pose, however, to await the movements of the secession authorities, 
well knowing that they could not long remain inactive, and that an 
attack upon Union troops would arouse and consolidate the North. 

The twelfth day of April, 1861, Gen. Beauregard opened fire upon 
Fort Sumter. This act transferred the contest from the theatre of 
discussion to the arbitrament of arms. It was followed by a procla- 
mation from President Lincoln, calling for seventy-five thousand 
volunteers, whose first duty should be the recovery of the forts, 
places, and property which had been seized from the Union. 

Thus the war was inaugurated, and under circumstances which 
placed the entire responsibility upon the actors in the Rebellion. 

As slavery had been the cause of the war, the administration was 
brought face to face with questions growing out of the system. In 
the beginning the military authorities surrendered fugitives to their 
masters. Soon, however, that course of action was changed, upon 
the demand of the people and the concurring judgment of the admin- 
istration. 

As early as July, 1862, a law was passed which provided that the 
slaves of all persons engaged in the Rebellion, or giving aid and com- 
fort thereto, who might escape and come within the Union lines, 
and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, and 
all slaves of such persons found in any place occupied by rebel forces 
and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, should 
be forever free, and never again held as slaves. 

This statute ended all controversy over the question of duty in 
regard to the rendition of fugitives from slavery, and its continuing 
operation would have ended the system in the eleven rebellious 



THE INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN. 35 

States, even if the Proclamation of Emancipation and the Thirteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution had not been called into existence. 

In the month of Masch, 1861, the Confederate authorities sent to 
"Washington a commission, consisting of three persons, with instruc- 
tions to negotiate a treaty of separation and peace. The commis 
sioners assumed that they represented a government de jure as well 
as de facto, and that the question of the right of the Confederate gov- 
ernment to exist was not to be considered. Mr. Seward declined to 
see them, and solely, as he said, upon public grounds. 

In the months of January and February, the rebel authorities had 
seized forts and arsenals, the property of the United States, with all 
the movable effects, including one hundred thousand stand of arms. 
Having thus commenced a war, the Confederate authorities sought 
by diplomacy to negotiate a peace. 

Mr. Lincoln occupied strong ground. He claimed to be the Pres- 
ident of the whole Union, and he accepted the duty of executing the 
laws in every State. On this proposition there could be no negotia- 
tions, and certainly none which rested upon an admission that the 
Union had ceased to exist. 

Thus again was made apparent the issue between Mr. Buchanan 
and Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan admitted the destruction of the 
Union, and denied the existence of any right in the national govern- 
ment to attempt its restoration by force. Mr. Lincoln treated the 
ordinances of secession as void ah initio, and claimed the right to 
enforce the laws of the United States in every State, — in those that 
had seceded as well as in those that were loyal to the Constitution. 
It is thus seen that he laid a foundation in law for every act of his 
administration, whether of legislation, of diplomacy, or of war. It 
is thus seen, also, that the Republican party, through its constituted 
agents, restored a Union and reorganized a government that had 
been assailed by one wing of the Democratic party, and abandoned 
by the other 

The statute of 1850, for the rendition of fugitives from slavery, 
was one of the most barbarous acts of modern times, and its passage 
contributed more largely than any other measure, to the anti-slavery 
sentiment of the North. The statute of 1793 was a humane measure 
when compared with that of 1850. By the earlier statute the claim- 
ant was required to make his own seizures, and to prove his title to 
the fugitive before a judge of a circuit or district court of the United 
States, or before some magistrate of a county, city, or town corpo- 






36 THE INAUGURATION OP LINCOLN. 

rate, wherein the arrest should be made; but by the law of 1850 the 
commissioners of the courts of the United States were authorized to 
act, marshals and deputy marshals were required to make the arrests, 
and in case of an affidavit by the claimant that he had reason to 
apprehend that an attempt would be made to rescue the fugitive, it 
became the duty of the officer making the arrest to employ assistants, 
and to return the fugitive to the State from whence he came, and at 
the expense of the United States. The alleged fugitive was not 
allowed to testify in his own behalf, but affidavits in behalf of the 
claimant were to be received, and the findings of a court in the State 
from which the person had escaped, as alleged, were conclusive. At 
the end the commissioner was entitled to a fee of ten dollars if the 
fugitive should be surrendered to the claimant, and five dollars only 
in case of his discharge. If a fugitive succeeded in making his es 
cape from a marshal or deputy marshal the marshal was made liable 
to the claimant for the value of the service of the fugitive in the State 
or Territory from which he had escaped, and this whether the escape 
was with or without the assent of the marshal. In the execution of 
the process the officer was authorized to call upon the bystanders as a 
posse comitatus, and all the citizens of the United States were en- 
joined to aid the marshals and deputy marshals in the performance 
of their duty. 

The fugitive slave bill of 1850 was passed by a majority of fifteen 
in the Senate, and thirty -five in the House. Each of the old parties 
contributed votes, — the Whig party less generously than the Demo- 
cratic party. 

When the Republican party came into power the amendment or 
repeal of the fugitive slave law was a subject of constant agitation 
in Congress and in the country ; but it was not until the 28th day of 
June, 1864, that a repealing act was passed, and approved by Presi- 
dent Lincoln. The repealing bill passed the House by the vote of 
ninety Republicans against a minority consisting of one Republican 
and sixty-one Democrats. The bill was supported in the Senate by 
the votes of twenty-seven Republicans against the votes of four 
Republicans and eight Democrats. 

The delay in securing the passage of the bill repealing the fugitive 
slave law, was due in part to the protests of the border Slave States 
that had not joined the confederacy, in part to the necessity of pro- 
viding means for the prosecution of the war, and in part to the oppo- 
sition of the northern Democrats, who denounced every movement 
that threatened the institution of slavery. 



THE INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN. 37 

The repeal of the measure was the work of the Republican party. 

It is not easy to comprehend the public sentiment upon the rights 
of negroes during the years of the war. Speaking generally, the 
members of the Democratic party were opposed first to their freedom, 
and consequently they were opposed to every measure and move- 
ment designed to elevate or improve the race. It was not without 
opposition that negroes were allowed to ride in the street-cars of the 
city of Washington; that they were permitted to testify in courts of 
justice ; that they were employed upon the fortifications, or enrolled 
in the army. The leading Democrats of the North insisted that 
slavery should be preserved with the Union, and that the restored 
Union should answer in every particular to the old Union. They 
insisted also that the States in rebellion were still States in the Union, 
and entitled to the same rights as the loyal States. This latter 
dogma was entertained by many Republicans. 

Every attempt to secure equal rights for the negro was opposed 
vigorously, and it was not until the 3d of March, 1864, that the 
statutes of the country authorized the enrollment of colored persons 
as a part of the military force of the Republic. 

Through these various stages, and by the action of the Republican 
party, the colored inhabitants of the country were advanced and 
secured in the enjoyment of some of the civil rights which appertain 
to citizenship. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PROCLAMATION OP EMANCIPATION AND THE AMENDMENTS TO 
THE CONSTITUTION. 

THE organization called "The Confederate States oi>A.merica " 
made the overthrow of the system of slavery possible as a mili- 
tary necessity ; hut the administration of Mr. Lincoln was confronted 
constantly with the opposition of the Democratic party of the North. 
The monitory Proclamation of Emancipation was issued the 22d day 
of September, 1862, and so general was the hostility to the proceed- 
ing that the Republican party escaped defeat by less than twenty- 
five majority in the House of Representatives. In the year 1862 elec 
tions were held in the loyal States only. 

Nor was the opposition to emancipation confined to members of 
the Democratic party. Similar opinions were entertained by the 
Republicans and Union men of the border Slave States, with few 
exceptions, and the Proclamation was deprecated by the press, and 
by influential Republicans in the most advanced anti-slavery commu- 
nities of the North. 

The early declarations of the Republican party that it was not its 
purpose to interfere with slavery in the States were quoted, and 
thereon the charge of inconsistency was based. No allowance was 
made for the changes that had been wrought by eighteen months of 
flagrant war. No account was taken of the facts that the slaves in 
the rebellious States were employed upon the plantations raising sup- 
plies for the armies in the field, and providing sustenance and even 
protection for the families at home. The spirit of forbearance, and 
the sentiment of humanity exhibited during the war by the negro 
population of the South, when thousands of defenseless families 
were at their mercy, ought to command not just treatment merely, 
but the sincere and continuing gratitude of the white population of 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 39 

the eleven States. The slave-holders themselves have been compelled 
to testify to the presence of virtues in the negro race which were sup- 
posed, generally, to belong only to the most cultivated classes of 
society. 

But neither the facts which are thus admitted, nor the admissions 
themselves, have wrought any change in the relations of the two 
races. The absence in the white race of the sentiment of gratitude 
and the sense of justice, is not due to the difference of race, but to 
the antecedent condition of slave and master. The slave was bound 
to render everything, while he was incapable of commanding any 
thing. The master commanded everything, and he was bound to ren- 
der nothing. Hence the humanity of the negro was accepted by the 
master as the performance of a duty, whose avoidance would have 
been a crime. 

To the slave-holders the overthrow of slavery was the loss of prop- 
erty, the loss of political power, and the loss of social supremacy. 
To the northern Democrat the overthrow of slavery was the loss of 
a political ally for which no substitute could be found. When the 
country was divided into two parties, upon questions that did not 
touch slavery, the slave power was a contingent in politics, and ready 
to perform service for either party, but always upon terms most 
acceptable to itself. When, however, the Whig party was extin- 
guished, and the Republican party was organized as an anti-slavery 
party, the slave power was forced into an alliance, or rather into a 
union with the ^Democratic party, and under circumstances which 
precluded all controversy as to terms. The slave power of the South 
was thus subordinated to the Democratic party of the North. There- 
tofore the slave power had ruled both political parties, but with the 
organization of the Republican party it became the servant of one of 
those parties. 

This change of parties was fraught with two important conse- 
quences. The slave power accepted secession as a means of escaping 
from a condition of subordination to the Northern democracy, and 
the Northern democracy demanded "the restoration of the Union as 
it was," well knowing that slavery was a bond which would hold the 
South in perpetual alliance with the Democratic party of the North. 

Upon the basis of these ideas the policy of the Democratic party 
was rational and logical. It claimed that the army should be used 
to aid the return of fugitive slaves to rebel masters; that fugitive 
slaves should not be employed in forts and arsenals; that negroes 



40 THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

should not be accepted as soldiers; and that inasmuch as the thirty- 
seventh. Congress had declared that the war was prosecuted solely 
for the restoration of the Union, the abolition of slavery, whether 
in the District of Columbia or in the States engaged in the Rebellion, 
was a breach of good faith. Its mottoes were, "The Union as it 
was;" " Once a State always a State." 

There was a very considerable minority of the Republican party 
who in the early years of the war either accepted the positions taken 
by the Democratic party of the North, or hesitated to assert the con- 
traiy. Finally, however, the Republican party accepted the respon- 
sibility of refusing to return fugitive slaves to rebel masters, of 
employing fugitive slaves in the forts and arsenals, of enlisting 
negroes in the army, of abolishing slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia and in the States and parts of States engaged in the Rebellion. 
"The Union as it was" was not restored, and the cry, " Once a 
State always a State," was disregarded. 

The primary object of war is the re-establishment of a condition 
of peace upon a basis more satisfactory to the conquering party. 
Measures, not inhuman, which tend to the restoration of peace, or 
measures which tend to render a condition of peace, when peace 
shall be restored, more stable or more agreeable to the parties, are 
measures which are justified by the antecedent reasons and by- the 
results. Thus tested, the emancipation of the slaves in the States 
engaged in the Rebellion is justifiable, and justified as a measure of 
war. 

The slaves were employed in the cultivation of the soil, by which 
the families of the soldiers were supported and the armies in the field 
were supplied with subsistence. They were also employed in the 
transportation of war material, and in the erection of fortifications, 
and the construction of roads and bridges. Emancipation was a 
pledge by the national government to every person held in slavery, 
that the relation of master and slave should never be re-established. 
As the old Union had failed, and as in that Union slavery had been 
the cause of the failure, there could be no reasonable hope of a per- 
manent peace until slavery disappeared. The old Union was an 
impossibility. Would a system of representation based upon slaves 
have been again tolerated by the North? Or would fugitives from 
slavery have been returned to their masters? Thus was the Procla- 
mation of Emancipation justified by the rules of war, and warranted 
by the then existing exigencies of the public service. In fine, it 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 41 

made possible the formation of a Union so acceptable that no qne is 
now found to voice a dissent, while from 1789 to 1860 there was 
never a year when the capacity or the right of the Union to maintain 
its existence was not a subject of public debate. 

The Democratic party demanded the re -establishment of a system 
of government which had failed under and by its leadership, and 
resisted the reorganization of the Union upon a basis which guaran- 
teed alike the equality of men and the equality of States. On the 
issue thus raised the Democratic party was defeated, and its policy 
is now condemned by experience. 

The restoration of the Union and its peaceful perpetuation to other 
times, depended upon two events, viz. : The prosecution of the war 
to a successful termination, and the abolition of slavery. The Dem- 
ocratic party, through its leaders, denied the rightfulness of the war, 
although many members of that party contributed a full share to its 
success. The Democratic party, as an organization, opposed the 
abolition of slavery, and not one of its representative men supported 
the Proclamation of Emancipation. 

Thus it appears that if the fortunes of the country had been com- 
mitted to the Democratic party the war would have been a failure, 
probably; or if the rebellious States had been subjugated by arms or 
conciliated by negotiations, the institution of slavery would have 
been preserved to foster divisions, encourage controversies, all to end 
finally in a renewal of the war. The Democratic party is thus 
shown to have been deficient in patriotism and in statesmanship. 

Upon a proposition submitted to the House of Representatives, 
December 15, 1862, which declared that the Proclamation of the 22d 
of September, 1862, was warranted by the Constitution, and that the 
policy of emancipation was well adapted to hasten the restoration of 
peace, was well chosen as a war measure, and an exercise of power 
having proper regard for the rights of the States and the perpetuity 
of free government, only two members who were elected as Demo- 
crats gave affirmative votes, while seven members who were elected 
as Republicans, or Union men, as distinguished from Democrats and 
Republicans, voted in the negative. 

During the first two years of the war there was a continuous 
struggle between the North and the South for supremacy in the 
border Slave States, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. 
They were disturbed by the emancipation of the slaves in the District 
of Columbia, and every act of the President was carefully examined 



42 THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

by the inhabitants of those States. They protested against any step 
looking to emancipation, even if compensation were guaranteed. 
In March, 1862, the President recommended the adoption of a reso- 
lution in these words, viz. : 

"Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any 
State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to 
such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State in its discretion, 
to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced 
by such change of system." 

This resolution was supported by four Democrats only in the 
House of Representatives, and two in the Senate. It was passed by 
a two-thirds vote in each House, but the proposition was not accepted. 
This was Mr. Lincoln's first effort at emancipation in the States that 
had not engaged in the rebellion, and his sagacity and far-seeing 
statesmanship were never exhibited more conspicuously. 

The proposition thus made by the President and approved by Con- 
gress could not but weaken the position of the border States in the 
event of emancipation without compensation, as an incident or result 
of the war. If, on the other hand, the proposition should be accepted 
by the loyal Slave States, there would then be no obstacle to com- 
pulsory emancipation in the rebel States. Moreover, the proposition 
qualified, in some degree, the demand made for immediate and 
unconditional emancipation as a measure of war. It was a prelimi- 
nary step in a path in which the President was well assured he must 
walk to the end, — unconditional, universal emancipation. There can 
be no doubt, however, that the President was sincere in his effort to 
secure the freedom of the slaves in the loyal States and in aid thereof 
to compensate the owners. 

His proclamation of the 19 th of May, 1862, in which the proclama- 
tion of Major-General David Hunter, declaring that the persons 
theretofore held as slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida 
were forever free, was revoked, contained a passage which showed 
that he then thought of emancipation as a military necessity. This 
was his language: " Whether it be competent for me as commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy to declare the slaves of any State or 
States free, and whether at any time, in any case, it shall have become 
a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the government to 
exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under my respon- 
sibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in 
leaving^to the decision of commanders in the field." 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 43 

In July the President sought an interview with the representative 
men from the border Slave States. In an address to them he urged 
his plan for emancipation, and expressed his regret that his efforts 
had not been supported. Again he indicated the peril to which the 
loyal slave-holders were exposed, by & reference to the effect upon 
his northern supporters by his repudiation of Gen. Hunter's procla- 
mation. " In repudiating it I gave dissatisfaction, if not offense, to 
many whose support the country cannot afford to lose. And this is 
not the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon me, 
and is increasing." 

This appeal to the border Slave States was followed by an earnest 
recommendation to Congress in December, 1862, to initiate amend- 
ments to the Constitution of the United States guaranteeing compen- 
sation to any State that should provide for the emancipation of its 
slaves at any time before the year one thousand and nine hundred. 
This recommendation was coupled with the statement that the adop- 
tion of the plan would not stay the prosecution of the war, nor inter- 
fere with the proceedings under the Proclamation of the 22d of 
September. The proposition was thus limited in the mind of the 
President to the Slave States that had not engaged in the Rebellion. 

Mr. Lincoln was an anti-slavery man, but his conduct as a citizen, 
and his policy as President, were guided by the Constitution. It is 
probable that at the moment when the war became formidable, and 
the Confederate States were organized as a government, he antici- 
pated that the time would come when the emancipation of the slaves 
would be justified as a means of subjugating the rebels and restoring 
the Union. As early as May, 1862, in a letter to a Union man in 
Louisiana he intimated a purpose to proclaim emancipation rather 
than lose the government. When Lee crossed the Potomac and 
invaded Maryland, the President made a resolve that whenever the 
rebels were driven into Virginia he would issue the proclamation. 
The battle of Antietam in September, 1862, and the retreat of Lee 
were the final events in a series which, in the opinion of Mr. Lincoln, 
required and justified the emancipation of the slaves as a means of 
ending the war and restoring the Union. 

Events then future have vindicated the wisdom of the act. 

In his second annual message Mr. Lincoln discussed and defended 
the emancipation policy. "Without slavery," said he, "the Rebel- 
lion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue." 
This was his first public declaration of these important truths, but 



44 THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

the truths must have been present in his mind for many months pre- 
vious to £he declaration. The difficulties of his situation were such 
that he was compelled to withhold all expression of opinions and 
purposes in regard to slavery until the moment arrived when It was 
wise to act. In each of the border Slave States there was a strong 
public sentiment in favor of the Confederacy. Every step taken by 
the government of the United States looking to emancipation was 
calculated to increase that sentiment. In Missouri, Kentucky, and 
West Virginia the war was flagrant, and the Union forces were often 
on the defensive. The public sentiment of those States was so 
equally divided that they were held to the Union by force. On the 
other hand, there were large bodies of men in the North who de- 
manded the immediate abolition of slavery, without regard to the 
effects upon the border States. 

It was the great good fortune of the country that Mr. Lincoln was 
superior to temporary influences. His comprehensive wisdom ena- 
bled him to so shape his policy as to meet the reasonable demands of 
those whose opinions corresponded with his own, without intensifying 
the hostility of his opponents. Eighteen months of war, and often 
at their own doors, had led the border States to sigh for peace, and 
at any price. The system of slavery had lost many of its attractions. 
Fugitives were not returned. The armies were ready to accept the 
services of negroes without inquiry as to ownership. The Procla- 
mations of September, 1862, and January, 1863, were received with 
favor by Republicans in the old Free States, and in silent acquies- 
cence by the Union men in the border Slave States. The measure 
was denounced by the Democrats, and the elections of 1862 were 
highly favorable to that party. 

If the Proclamation had been issued twelve months, or even six 
months, earlier, the country would have rebelled against the meas- 
ure. Under the circumstances the loss of confidence, even in the 
border States, was temporary. In a few weeks or months at most, 
the consequences of the shock had disappeared. The abolition of 
slavery in the rebel States was accepted as an accomplished fact, 
and the border States soon realized that the system was valueless to 
them. 

Mr. Lincoln had sought to abolish slavery in the border States as 
a step towards its forcible overthrow in the Confederate States. 
Failing in this the process was reversed. Slavery was first abolished 
in the Confederate States. Its abolition there made it impossible to 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 45 

protect it in the border States. Thus was the way prepared for the 
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the final extinction 
of the system in the United States. 

The resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution abol- 
ishing slavery, was agreed to by the Senate, April 8, 1864, by a vote 
of thirty-eight in the affirmative to six in the negative. Of the Dem- 
ocrats, two only, Senators Harding and Nesmith, voted in the 
affirmative. 

When the resolution came up for consideration in the House of 
Representatives, Mr. Holman of Indiana moved its rejection. On 
this motion the yeas were fifty-five, and the nays were seventy-six. 
Upon the final question, June 15, 1864, the yeas were ninety-five, 
and the nays were sixty-six. So the resolution failed to pass, the 
constitutional majority of two-thirds not having been secured. Mr. 
Ashley of Ohio, who had voted with the minority in numbers for 
the purpose of moving a reconsideration, entered his motion at once, 
and all further action was then postponed. Of the Democratic party 
three members voted for the resolution, sixty -five voted against it, 
and twelve members neglected to answer to their names. 

The elections of 1864 were favorable to the Republican party, and 
of the members returned to the House less than one-third were Dem- 
ocrats. The canvass had changed public opinion upon the subject 
of emancipation, and many Democrats accepted the conclusion that 
the abolition of the system of slavery was inevitable. The thirty- 
ninth Congress was pledged to the amendment to the Constitution. 
Further resistance was therefore vain. 

Early in the second month of the second session of the thirty eighth 
Congress, Mr. Ashley called up his motion to reconsider the vote by 
which the proposed amendment had been rejected. That motion 
prevailed, and upon the question of passing the resolution the yeas 
were one hundred and nineteen, and the nays were fifty-six, — all 
Democrats. Sixteen Democrats voted in the affirmative, and eight 
others declined to vote. 

The elections of 1864 had secured the passage of the resolution by 
the thirty-ninth Congress, but its adoption by the thirty-eighth Con- 
gress was due to the affirmative action of sixteen Democrats, and the 
non-action of eight others. The amendment was submitted to the 
States the first day of February, 1865, and the eighteenth day of the 
following December the Secretary of State issued a proclamation 



46 THE PKOCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

declaring that it had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven 
of the thirty -six States composing the Union. 

Thus and then the system, of slavery came to an end in the United 
States; and thus and then was an example given which is to be fol- 
lowed by all the nations of the earth. 

This was indeed the most lustrous event in American history. 
Not the Declaration of Independence, nor the Constitution, even, 
can bear the test of a comparison with the measures of Emancipa- 
tion and Abolition. The chains which were lifted or broken by the 
Declaration of Independence were not as burdensome and galling as 
those which were fastened upon the Free States by the compromises 
of the Constitution. Had the Union with Great Britain continued 
for half a century, an equality of power with the mother country 
would have been recognized and established, or the bonds of union 
would have been parted in peace. The evils of the colonial relation 
were temporary ; the evils of slavery under the Constitution had 
assumed the character of permanent and growing wrongs. 

First of all there was a denial of the equality of men as political 
forces in the government of the country. Not merely a denial of 
political rights to the negro race ; the Constitution secured unequal 
political power to the voters in a Slave State, and that inequality 
was increased as the number of slaves was augmented. Slave-catch- 
ing was made a national duty; and the glowing truths of the Decla- 
ration of Independence were repudiated or disregarded in the public 
policy of the country. Professing freedom, we were characterized 
justly as a nation of slave-holders. 

The slave-holding class directed the policy of the slave-holding 
States, and the slave-holding States held the balance of power between 
the rival parties of the North. And thus were parties and politi- 
cians and statesmen, and the public policy of the country, subordi- 
nated to the slave-holders of the South. At the end, the value of 
the Declaration of Independence was not so much in its allegations 
against Great Britain as in the announcement by authority of funda- 
mental truths which concern all men, and are applicable to all times 
and conditions of society. Those truths were the constant enemy of 
slavery, and they contributed essentially to its overthrow. 

With this history, and upon this view of emancipation, the Repub- 
lican party may claim the first place among parties, when measured 
and judged by the value of the achievement and the difficulties 
attending its accomplishment. At the end, twenty-four Democrats 



THE PKOCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 47 

of the House of Kepresentatives contributed directly or indirectly to 
the passage of the amendment, and in the States yet others may 
have aided in its ratification; but their aid came when success was 
assured. They gave no assistance to the movement in the days of 
its weakness. Indeed, the men who favored emancipation were 
denounced by leading Democrats as equally guilty with those who 
were engaged in secession. 

Mr. Lincoln's great place in history is due to the circumstance 
that he had the courage, the solemn fortitude, to inaugurate a system 
of emancipation, and then to apply all the resources and powers of 
the office that he held to the aid of the undertaking. Our successes 
on the water and in the field were due largely to the skill and courage 
of the officers and men of the navy and army. The President and 
Cabinet, however wise in counsel, could only share with others the 
honor accorded to military successes. 

The Proclamation of Emancipation was postponed, upon the judg- 
ment and in the wise discretion of the President, until the country 
was prepared to accept it and support it. West Virginia, Kentucky, 
and Missouri had been so ravaged and wasted by both armies that 
the inhabitants sighed for peace at any cost. Slaves had lost their 
value, and slavery its attractions. In September, 1861, those States 
would have rebelled against emancipation and joined the Confederacy ; 
in September, 1862, it was accepted by some as a relief and a hope, 
and by others as a consummation of what, for a time, they had 
regarded as inevitable. 

The Proclamation, of Emancipation removed all fears of foreign 
interference, and at home it dissipated the illusion that the Union as 
it was could be restored. Unity of opinion in council, and unity of 
purpose in the field, took the place of divided opinions and conflict- 
ing actions. 

To the Republican party, and to Mr. Lincoln as the head of that 
party, are due the honors that will be accorded to the authors and 
defenders of the measure, by every generation of American citizens, 
and by the general judgment of mankind in all the coming ages. 

If we can now imagine the war ended, the Union restored, as it was 
the old Constitution preserved, slavery perpetuated and all its evils 
magnified, we can form a just conception of the consequences 01 the 
policy advocated by the Democratic party. 

In contrast with those consequences the South may be summoned 



48 THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

to testify as to the existing condition of affairs. Of the twenty years 
of freedom, the last ten have been distinguished by a degree of 
prosperity such as the South had never before experienced. Popula- 
tion and wealth have increased in a ratio heretofore unknown. For 
its present productive power there has been no example in its history. 
If we include the negro race, the average intelligence is higher than 
at any time previous to the war. Political evils and crimes have not 
disappeared, but they are temporary. Above all, the defenders of 
slavery are a meagre minority, and the spirit of disunion is sup- 
pressed absolutely. These beginnings indicate the future greatness 
of the old Slave States, — a greatness which slavery could neither 
create nor tolerate. 

Mr. Lincoln was indebted to the Republican party for the oppor- 
tunity to initiate these great reforms, touching not merely the rights 
and condition of the millions of slaves, but affecting also the union, 
peace, and prosperity of the States and people of the Republic. But 
the Republican party, the country, and mankind, are indebted to 
Mr. Lincoln for the courageous statesmanship that he exhibited in 
the most perilous crises of the nation's history. 

President Lincoln excelled all his contemporaries, as he also 
excelled most of the eminent rulers of every time, in the humanity 
of his nature; in the constant assertion of reason over passion and 
feeling; in the art of dealing with men; in fortitude, never disturbed 
by adversity; in capacity for delay when action was fraught with 
peril ; in the power of immediate and resolute decision when delays 
were dangerous; in comprehensive judgment which forecasts the 
final and best opinion of nations and of posterity; and in the union 
of enlarged patriotism, wise philanthropy, and the highest political 
justice by which he was enabled to save a nation and to emancipate 
a race. 



The slaves emancipated were not thereby made citizens. By the 
overthrow of the Confederacy the States composing it were not 
restored to their places in the Union. Such was the public senti- 
ment in the South that there was no ground for believing that the 
rights of citizens would be accorded to the freedmen except upon 
compulsion. 

By the abolition of slavery the freedmen were counted as if they 
were citizens, in the apportionment of representatives among the 
States. Therefore the abolition of slavery gave to the white voters 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 49 

in the old Slave States greater weight in the government of the coun- 
try than they had possessed in the days of slavery. Two methods 
of remedying the inequality were suggested: First, to extend citizen- 
ship and the right of suffrage to the freedmen, or, secondly, to base 
the representation in the House of Representatives upon the number 
of voters in each State. In 1865 and 1866 the prejudice against the 
negro race was so strong that the alternative proposition was adopted. 

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was designed to 
remedy the inequality otherwise existing between the value of a vote 
in the old Free States and the old Slave States. This result was 
seoured by the second section, which provided that when the right to 
vote for certain officers specified should be denied to any of the male 
citizens of any State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of 
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in such State 
should be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male 
citizens should bear to the whole number of male citizens in such 
State. In order to give full effect to this section, it is provided in 
section one that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United 
States and of the State wherein they reside. Equal rights and priv- 
ileges are also guaranteed to all citizens. 

By the third section certain disabilities were imposed upon classes 
of Official persons who had been engaged in the Rebellion, subject, 
however, to the power of Congress, by a two-thirds vote, to remove 
such disabilities. This inhibition is now operative only upon a 
few persons. 

By section four the validity of the public debt is recognized, 
including bounties and pensions to the soldiers. The assumption of 
debts incurred in aid of the Rebellion by the United States or by any 
State, is prohibited. 

The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution has annulled the 
second section of the Fourteenth Amendment, which fixed the basis 
of representation; but the guarantee of citizenship and of equal rights 
to all, without regard to race, color, or nativity, will remain as long 
as a *' government of the people, by the people, for the people," shall 
exist on this continent. 

The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed to the legislatures of the 
several States the 16th day of June, 1866, and on the 21st day of 
July, 1868, Congress, by a concurrent resolution, declared that the 
4 



60 THE PKOCLAMATION OP EMANCIPATION. 

amendment had been ratified "by three-fourths and more of the 
several States of the Union," it having, in fact, been ratified by 
twenty-nine States in all. 

By the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution the right to vote 
Is secured to citizens of the United States in so far that it cannot be 
denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition 
of servitude. 

The Proclamation of Emancipation and the three amendments to 
the Constitution are all the work of the Republican party. With 
the exceptions specified in regard to the Thirteenth Amendment, the 
Proclamation and the amendments were opposed by the Democratic 
party, and by Democrats generally. 

The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment was announced by 
the Secretary of State, March 30, 1870. The war was ended, slavery 
was abolished, citizenship, State and National, had been established, 
and the right to vote had been guaranteed to all without regard to 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Constitution 
had been reformed and the nation regenerated in the short period of 
less than ten years. 

The Republican party was drawn by its principles and driven by 
its necessities to the support of all these measures. The government 
was in its hands, it was pledged to the restoration of the Union, and 
to its restoration upon the basis of its perpetuity. Neither of these 
ends could be attained while slavery lasted. When slavery was 
abolished the Fourteenth Amendment became an imperative neces- 
sity, as the only means of securing an equality of political power in 
the hands of the men who had suppressed the Rebellion and re-estab- 
lished the Union. When the negro race, numbering more than a 
tenth of the population of the country, had been freed ; when they 
had performed service in the army; when they had been endowed 
with citizenship, and all under the lead and upon the responsibility 
of the Republican party, that party was bound by its principles and 
forced by its necessities to extend the franchise to those whom it had 
made citizens. 

By the force of circumstances, and in obedience to a logic equally 
inexorable, the Democratic party resisted all these changes. For 
thirty years and more it had supported slavery, and in return it had 
enjoyed the alliance and support of the slave-holding class. A gen- 
eration of voters and of statesmen had been trained in the compan- 
ionship and ideas furnished by such support and alliance. If not 






THE PBOCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 51 

held to their former associates by the sentiment of gratitude, noi 
influenced by the hope of regaining lost power, they were constrained 
in their action by the fact that the Republican party commanded the 
confidence and support of the anti-slavery men of the country. The 
field was occupied. In truth, however, the Democratic party re- 
mained faithful to its ancient allies, not from a sentiment of grati- 
tude for past favors, nor from the expectation of future advantages, 
but from an identity of ideas, to whose power it submitted itself with 
unreasoning and absolute deference. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ELECTION OP 1864, WITH A VIEW OF THE POSITIONS OF 
THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES. 

FROM the autumn of 1860 to the month of August, 1864, the Dem- 
ocratic party, as a national party, made no declarations of its 
opinions or purposes concerning the war, the re-establishment of 
peace, or the reconstruction of the government. 

Conventions were held in the States, however, and declarations 
were there made. Generally those declarations contained a denial of 
the rightfulness of the war; or if, as in some cases, the duty or the 
necessity of prosecuting the war was recognized, the recognition "was 
coupled with the claim that it should be conducted solely for the res- 
toration of the Union. The declarations of the Democratic party 
assumed as an historical fact that the Union was a union between Free 
States and Slave States rather than a union between States without 
regard to their domestic institutions. Consequently, in the view of 
the members of that party, the restoration of the Union meant the 
restoration of the union of Slave States and Free States. Thus to 
them slavery and the Union were co-existent political facts and alike 
enduring. This position was consistent with the traditions of the 
party and it was well calculated to advance it to power in the future, 
if, indeed, the position was not taken for that special purpose. In 
the elections of 1836, 1844, 1852, and 1856 the success of the Demo- 
cratic party had been due to its alliance with the slaveholding class 
of the South, and the leaders must have been filled with serious 
apprehensions that the overthrow of slavery would be followed by their 
defeat in the country. Those apprehensions have become history, 
and except for a policy of force and fraud in the South the Demo- 
cratic party could not have commanded a majority in ten States in 

(52) 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 53 

the election of 1876 or in that of 1880. Thus is it seen that the tra- 
ditions and hopes of the Democratic party alike led it to engage in 
the defense of the institution of slavery in the days of its peril and as 
its end approached. 

Following the defeat of 1860 and the overthrow of the leaders of 
the Democratic party who were not engaged in the Rebellion, Gen. 
McClellan was not only advanced to the command of the army by a 
Republican administration, but he was accepted also as the head of 
the Democratic party. 

The latter relation was established firmly by his letter to President 
Lincoln, dated at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, July 7, 1862. 

Three propositions were enunciated distinctly in that letter, all 
of which were declined or set aside by President Lincoln. 

(1.) The President was advised to assume the absolute control of 
public affairs. These are the words of advice : " The time has come 
when the government must determine upon a civil and military 
policy, covering the whole ground of our national trouble. The 
responsibility of determining, declaring and supporting such civil and mili- 
tary policy, and of directing the whole course of national affairs in regard 
to the Rebellion, must now be assumed and exercised by you, or our cause 
will be lost. The constitution gives you power even for the present 
terrible emergency." 

(2.) The President was advised, or notified rather, that "neither 
confiscation of property, political execution of persons, territorial 
organization of States, or forcible abolition of slavery, should be con- 
templated for a moment. " 

And (3.) Gen. McClellan made a tender of his services in these 
words: "In carrying out any system of policy which you may 
form, you will require a commander-in-chief of the army, one who 
possesses your confidence, understands your views, and who is com- 
petent to execute your orders, by directing the military forces of the 
nation to the accomplishment of the objects by you proposed. I do 
not ask that place for myself. I am willing to serve you in such 
position as you may assign me, and I will do so as faithfully as ever 
subordinate served superior. " 

These three propositions are indefensible, and the first and third are 
open to explanation only upon the theory that McClellan had lost 
faith in the ability of the government to suppress the Rebellion by 
constitutional agencies. Considered logically his scheme was this: 



64 THE ELECTION OP 1864. 

Mr. Lincoln was to assume the dictatorship. A dictatorship could 
be maintained only by the power of the army. 

McClellan was at the head of the army of the East, and that army 
was devoted to his person and his leadership. 

At the moment of the tender of his services he well knew that if 
Mr. Lincoln accepted his advice as to the dictatorship he must also 
accept his services as the head of the army. As the army was then 
constituted it would have been impossible for Mr. Lincoln to assume 
absolute power and at the same time supersede McClellan as com- 
mander-in-chief. 

In fine, the commander-in-chief of the army would have been the 
real dictator. If any natural interpretation is given to the language 
used by McClellan his letter was in itself an admission that the gov- 
ernment had ceased to exist, and that a military usurpation was the 
only possible means by which it could be restored. 

Happily for the country Mr. Lincoln was undismayed by the dis- 
asters of the Peninsula. He did not attempt to direct the whole 
course of national affairs ; he did not accept McClellan's tender of 
support and promise of fidelity and subordination ; and he continued 
to hold in his own hand the power to destroy slavery as a means of 
suppressing the Rebellion. 

If to any this criticism of McClellan's letter shall appear unjust, the 
way is open for them to tender an explanation of his language that is 
consistent either with wisdom in judgment, or patriotism in duty. 

When Mr. Lincoln issued the monitory proclamation of the 22d of 
September, 1862, McClellan was at the head of the army. The par- 
ticular thing against which he had advised in his letter of the 7th of 
July had now been done, or so inaugurated that its accomplishment 
was an accepted fact in the South and in the North. 

By a general order, dated the 7th of October, Gen. McClellan 
announced the proclamation to the army. He counseled obedience 
and moderation of temper in discussion, and he declared that " the 
remedy for political errors, if any are committed, is to be found only 
in the action of the people at the polls." Time, reflection, and, per- 
haps, more than all, the battle of Antietam, had enabled him to recover 
himself from the delusion or from the unpatriotic thought that he 
could create a dictator and dictate his policy. 

As Gen. McClellan was nominated by the Democratic party for the 
office of President some responsibility for his opinions was assumed 
necessarily, by that party. 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 55 

If he is held to a literal construction of the language used by him, 
then his advice to the President was unpatriotic, if not treasonable. 
If he is excusable upon the ground that he did not appreciate the 
scope and force of the language that he employed, then, manifestly, 
he was not fit for the position he occupied. 

In November, 1863, the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylva- 
nia pronounced the act of March 3, 1863, entitled "An Act for 
Enrolling and calling out the National Forces and for other pur- 
poses," unconstitutional. 

Judge Woodward was the Democratic candidate for the office of 
Governor, and he was a member of the court and of the majority. 
He was not an obscure man. Independently of this opinion, he was 
well and generally known as an avowed supporter of extreme State 
rights doctrines. The opinion which he and his associates gave, and. 
which was for a time the law of Pennsylvania, if it had been 
accepted generally by the judicial tribunals of the country, would have 
ended the contest and established the Rebellion as an accomplished 
fact. In that dark period of the country's history the war could not 
have been prosecuted under the volunteer system, even when sup- 
ported by large bounties. 

Judge Woodward and his associates of the majority asserted and 
maintained the doctrine that the regular army of the United States 
could be recruited only by volunteers, and that in case of invasion or 
rebellion the only other military resource was in the militia of the 
several States. "i 

This force, when called into the service of the United States, must 
be summoned and employed under the State organizations, and subject 
to the command of the officers appointed or elected by virtue of State 
laws. 

Such was the opinion of the Supreme Court of the State of Penn- 
sylvania, — an opinion which denied to the national government the 
right to command the services of its own citizens and to employ 
them in its own ways in defense of its own existence. The doctrine 
of State rights, which concedes to the Union the power to protect 
itself in its existence, its rights, and its honor, and by its own meth- 
ods, and independently of the will of States, and which concedes to 
States the power to administer their domestic affairs in their own 
way, is a healthful and constitutional doctrine; and no other doctrine 
would have been advocated or even announced except for the early- 
formed purpose to defend the institution of slavery at any and every 



56 THE ELECTION OF 1864. 

sacrifice, whether of honor, of constitutional obligations, or of 
national existence. 

The opinion of the court was given in November, and while the 
case was pending and during the canvass for Governor, Gen. 
McClellan held a conference with Judge Woodward, and thereupon 
he announced himself a supporter of Judge Woodward's candidacy, 
in a letter dated October 12, 1863. 

The circumstance that the Philadelphia Press had stated that Gen. 
McClellan favored the election of Gov. Curtin was the occasion for 
the letter. 

Gen. McClellan said that it had been his earnest endeavor to avoid 
participation in party politics, but as he could no "longer maintain 
silence under such misrepresentations," he proceeded to say that he 
had had a conference with Judge Woodward, that they agreed in 
their views, and that in his opinion the election of Judge Woodward 
was called for by the interests of the nation. 

If there were any reason to assume that Judge Woodward did not 
disclose his opinions fully in that interview, all doubt must disappear 
in presence of the statements made by Gen. McClellan. He says, " I 
understand Judge Woodward to be in favor of the prosecution of the 
war with all the means at the command of the loyal States, until the 
military power of the Rebellion is destroyed. I understood him to" be 
of opinion that while the war is waged with all possible decision and 
energy, the policy directing it should be in consonance with the prin- 
ciples of humanity and civilization, working no injury to private 
rights and property not demanded by military necessity and recog- 
nized by military law among civilized nations. 

"And, finally, I understood him to agree with me in the opinion 
that the sole great objects of this war are the restoration of the unity 
of the nation, the preservation of the constitution, and the supremacy 
of the laws of the country." 

Three distinct propositions are deducible reasonably, from the lan- 
guage employed by Gen. McClellan. 

(1.) The military force was that which should be furnished by the 
loyal States, that is, the State militia as distinguished from the army 
of the United States, whether composed of men who had enlisted vol- 
untarily, or of men who had been enrolled and drafted into service by 
the exercise of supreme and exclusive authority on the part of the 
national government. Thus it appears that the agreement in opinion 



THE ELECTION OP 1864. 57 

by Gen. McClellan and Judge Woodward was that the mode of coer- 
cion provided in the act of March 3, 1863, was unconstitutional. 

Unfortunately for Judge Woodward and Gen. McClellan, others, 
and among them Judge Davis, of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, maintained the constitutionality of the Enrollment 
Act. 

(2.) Gen. McClellan and Judge Woodward agreed in opinion that 
property in slaves was as sacred as other property and that the insti- 
tution of slavery was to survive the war. 

(3.) That the constitution as it was should be preserved. 

xVll three propositions were unsound and all their purposes failed ; 
but upon the basis so established by these two men Gen. McClellan 
became the designated leader of the Democratic party in 1864. 

The Democratic Convention assembled at Chicago the 29th day of 
August, 1864, and nominated Gen. McClellan for the office of Presi- 
dent and .George H. Pendleton for that of Vice-President of the Uni- 
ted States. 

The convention was called to order by August Belmont, Chairman 
of the National Committee. Gov. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, was 
appointed temporary chairman, and Gov. Seymour, of New York, was 
chosen to preside ov&r the deliberations of the convention. 

Mr. Belmont judged the past, condemned the present, prophesied 
concerning the future; and in all he was in error. 

Addressing the convention, he said, " In your hands rests, under the 
ruling of an all-Wise Providence, the future of the republic. Four 
years of misrule by a sectional, fanatical, and corrupt party, have 
brought our country to the very verge of ruin. The past and pres- 
ent are sufficient warnings of the disastrous consequences which would 
befall us if Mr. Lincoln's reelection should be made possible by our 
want of patriotism and unity. The inevitable results of such a calam- 
ity would be the utter disintegration of our whole political and social 
system, amidst bloodshed and anarchy, with the great problems of 
liberal progress and self-government jeopardized for generations to 
come." 

All these prophecies were falsified by events, and one only of his 
suggestions Iras become an historical fact. 

Mr. Lincoln's reelection was in part clue to a want of patriotism in 
the Democratic party. The country was not then on the " very verge 
of ruin," nor did the reelection of Mr. Lincoln result in the disinte- 
gration of our whole political and social system, although it did result 



58 THE ELECTION OF 1864. 

in the destruction of so much of the social system as rested upon the 
institution of slavery. 

Gov. Bigler charged the Republican party with the responsibility 
of dissolving the Union, and he asserted that its restoration could be 
effected only by the overthrow of the administration. His statement 
of fact was erroneous, and his prophecy was not fulfilled. 

Gov. Seymour's address was more elevated in tone, but the pivotal 
thoughts were the same. He condemned the administration and 
declared that it could not then save the Union if it would. He 
asserted that its proclamations, its vindictive legislation, its hate and 
passion, were obstacles which it could not overcome. Of the Demo- 
cratic party he said: " There are no hindrances in our pathways to 
union and to peace. We demand no conditions for the restoration of 
our Union: we are shackled with no hates, no prejudices, no pas- 
sions. We wish for fraternal relationship with the people of the 
South. We demand for them What we demand for ourselves — the 
full recognition of the rights of States." It is manifest from the lan- 
guage employed that he treated the proclamation of emancipation as 
a nullity, and that he was prepared to receive the States of the South 
without inquiry and without terms. Slavery was to continue and all 
the obligations of the old constitution were to be recognized and 
enforced. He pleaded for an impossible policy. 

The proclamation of emancipation and the war had so far under- 
mined slavery that its overthrow was inevitable. Consequently, the 
restoration of the old Union was an impossibility. This Gov. Sey- 
mour did not comprehend. The proclamation had been in force 
more than two years, and the restoration of the Union was then possible 
only upon the basis of freedom. As Gov. Seymour and his associates 
could not comprehend existing facts, they were incapable, conse- 
quently, of devising a wise policy for the future. 

Gov. Seymour's great error was the assumption that the Republi- 
can party was under the influence of passion, and that the Demo- 
cratic party was free from passion. The Republican party was a 
party of principles. When it came to power it had only a choice of 
ways. When the war opened it was compelled either to abandon its 
principles or to prosecute the war for the preservation of the Union. 

In the prosecution of the war the time came when it was compelled 
to abandon the cause of the Union and its doctrines of human liberty 
or to attack and overthrow the institution of slavery. The policy of 
the party was not dictated by passion but by necessity. The execu- 



THE ELECTION OF 1864. 59 

tion of that policy was tempered by every humanity possible in a 
condition of waT. The former slaves were advised to preserve order 
and even to render obedience, and thousands of rations were distrib- 
uted to the needy inhabitants of the South, white as well as black. 
The policy of the Republican party was not a policy of passion, but 
a policy of principle under the dictates of a rigorous necessity. 

Disappointment is not in itself a passion, but it generates the sen- 
timent of hate and the fatal passions of jealousy and envy. 

The Democratic party was the subject of a disappointment such as 
never waited upon any other political party in the republic. Usually 
parties are defeated upon questions of administration and through a 
loss of public confidence for the time being. Such losses may be re- 
paired, and sometimes they are repaired without delay ; but in 1860 the 
Democratic party lost not only power and the public confidence, but 
it lost also a controlling element in politics on which it had relied for 
more than twenty-five years, and by whose influence it had acquired 
and retained power in the country. Passion is a dangerous master, 
and of all human affairs its rule is most perilous in the affairs of 
government. In all of its great undertakings the Republican party 
has succeeded, and its measures have inured to the advantage of the 
country. On the other hand, the prophecies of the Democratic party 
have been falsified by events, the measures that it has proposed have 
been condemned by the public judgment, and whenever it has 
acquired power in the government it has exhibited a melancholy ina- 
bility for administration. 

In August, 1864, the result of the war was not in doubt, and it was 
apparent that the end w«as near. 

The battle of Gettysburg had been fought, Vicksburg had fallen, the 
Mississippi river was open from its head waters to the Gulf of Mexico. 
Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Missouri were in the quiet 
control of the Union forces, the sea coast was under an effective block- 
ade, and a portion of every border State and portions of nearly every 
State resting on the Mississippi river, the Gulf of Mexico and the At- 
lantic ocean were in the possession of the armies of the United States. 
Foreign interference was no longer apprehended. The credit of the 
Confederate States was destroyed utterly. It was impossible to 
negotiate loans abroad, and the resources on which taxes had been 
levied had disappeared. The new recruits for the Confederate armies 
did not repair the waste caused by sickness, death, and desertion. 

In 1861 and 1862 the Union armies had suffered many defeats. In 



60 THE ELECTION OF 1864. 

1863 and 1864 they had gained many victories and they had endured 
but few disasters. 

The army aggregated nearly a million of men, most of whom were 
veterans, disciplined by hardships, encouraged by a succession of 
victories, and confident in their own persons and in the courage and 
skill of their leaders. Indeed, there never was a day after Gen. 
Grant assumed the command of the Army of the Potomac when the 
army, the administration, or the world at large, excluding the Dem- 
ocratic party of the North, had any doubt of the result. 

It is a marvel of history, and a marvel which history itself cannot 
explain, that the delegates of the Democratic party should have failed 
to realize the facts, or, realizing the facts, should have failed to com- 
prehend their value. 

By the first resolution it was declared by the members of the Chi- 
cago convention that the Democratic party would "adhere with 
unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution. " In this they 
meant the old Union and the Constitution as it was, with all its obli- 
gations in regard to slavery. Adherence to the old Union meant the 
restoration of the States that had engaged in the Rebellion, and all 
without terms, conditions, or voluntary pledges. By its pledge of 
adherence to the old Union under the Constitution the Democratic 
party repudiated the Proclamation of Emancipation as an exercise of 
power not warranted by the Constitution, nor justified by the exi- 
gencies of war. 

The Chicago platform of 1864 was the logical sequence of the 
position taken by Mr. Buchanan in 1860. If the national govern- 
ment had not a right to use force to prevent the secession of States, 
then the exercise of the war power by the President and Congress 
was unconstitutional. Therefore, every act of force designed to sup- 
press the Rebellion and restore the Union was invalid. The procla- 
mation of emancipation was such an act. Consequently, it was a 
void act. 

Upon this interpretation of the leading resolution of the Chicago 
platform the second resolution becomes intelligible. It was in these 
words: "Resolved, That this convention does especially declare as 
the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to 
restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under 
the pretense of a military necessity, or war power higher than the 
Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every 
part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down and the 



THE ELECTION OP 1864. 61 

material prosperity of the country essentially impaired — justice, 
humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate 
efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view of an ulti- 
mate convention of the States, or other peaceable means to the end 
that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the 
basis of the Federal Union of the States." 

The failure of which the convention spoke was not the failure of 
the war in a military sense ; nor was it a failure upon the ground 
that its prosecution had not tended to the reestablishment of the gov- 
ernment and the exercise of jurisdiction over all of the original terri- 
tory of the United States ; but it was a failure in the sense that its 
prosecution and its successes, in the ratio of its successes, had ren- 
dered the restoration of the Union as it was and under the old Con- 
stitution less and less probable. 

The demand for a cessation of hostilities was the logical sequence 
of the declaration made by Mr. Buchanan in his message of Decem- 
ber, 1860 : ' ' The fact is, that our Union rests upon public opinion, 
and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil 
war. If it can not live in the affections of the people it must one 
day perish. Congress possesses many means of preserving it by concil- 
iation; but the sioord was not placed in its hand to preserve it by force." 

The Convention did not demand an armistice, which implies that 
the war may be resumed, but a cessation of hostilities, which im- 
plies a final and complete abandonment of force as a means of 
attaining the desired result. 

This view of the meaning attached to that language by the Con- 
vention itself is confirmed by the object to be attained, as it is set 
forth, in these words: " With a view to an ultimate convention of the 
States, or other peaceccble means, to the end that at t7ie earliest practica- 
ble moment peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of 
the States." 

The propositions involved in the resolutions of the Chicago Con- 
vention were these : 

(1.) The war to end by the voluntary withdrawal of the armies 
and navies of the United States from the theatre of operations, and 
never again to be resumed. 

(2.) The Union to be restored by a Convention of States or by other 
peaceable means, and in case of failure to be abandoned, and upon 
the ground that the nation had no constitutional right to preserve its 
existence by force. 



62 THE ELECTION OF 1864. 

(3.) That inasmuch as the nation had no right to use force to pre- 
vent the secession of States from the Union, the war, with all its 
consequences and incidents, was unconstitutional, including the 
Proclamation of Emancipation. 

If the Convention had spoken for the American people, as it pre- 
sumed and assumed to speak, the soldiers of the Kepublic might 
have received sympathy, but not gratitude nor pensions ; the f reed- 
men, wherever found, would have been returned to their former 
masters; the Proclamation of Emancipation would have been treated 
as void ; and the debt of the North would have been repudiated, or 
it would have been massed with the debt of the South and with it 
made a charge upon the labor and capital of the country. Indeed, if 
the war on the part of the North was unjustifiable, then there could 
be no good reason for making its debt a charge upon the country 
and requiring the States of the South to contribute to its payment. 
For the same reasons we of the North would have been bound to pay 
the debt of the South. 

Upon these issues, not fully expressed, and not always under- 
stood, the Democratic party appealed to the country. 

In a total vote of more than four million Mr. Lincoln's majority 
exceeded four hundred thousand. Of the electoral votes Gen. Mc- 
Clellan received twenty-one — seven in New Jersey, three in Dela- 
ware, and eleven in Kentucky. 

Mr. Lincoln received two hundred and twelve electoral votes, given 
by twenty-two States. 

And so ended the most important political contest, not of this 
Kepublic only, but of modern times. 

In November, 1864, the South was exhausted utterly. The people 
had lost confidence in the leaders, the armies were wasting away, the 
treasury was empty, and masters and slaves were alike assured that 
the end was near. The hope that the Democratic party might suc- 
ceed was the only hope remaining. 

Not more fortunate for the North than for the South was the fail- 
ure of that hope. 

With success would have come an effort to reestablish the institu- 
tion of slavery. Fugitives would have been gathered by the military 
arm from every quarter of the Union, and slave-catching would have 
become a national vocation. When the public patience had been 
exhausted and the public conscience had been again aroused, resist- 



THE BISECTION OF 1864. 63 

ance would have been made, border wars would have been provoked, 
and the contest for supremacy would have been renewed. 

When Congress passed the act of July 17, 1862, entitled " An Act 
to suppress Insurrection, to punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize 
and confiscate the Property of Rebels, and for other purposes," the 
restoration of the. Union upon a pro-slavery basis became an 
impossibility. 

The Confederates were struggling to found a Republic upon 
Slavery; the Democrats of the North were struggling to reconstruct 
the Republic upon Slavery. The Republican party, wiser than all, 
reconstructed the government upon the basis of universal freedom, 
of the equality of men in the States, and of the equality of States 
in the Union. 



V 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE FINANCIAL POLICY OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND ITS 
RESULTS. 

WHEN the Republican party came to power in March, 1861, the 
treasury of the United States was empty, its credit was im- 
paired, the navy was scattered over the waters remote from our own 
coasts, and the army was only sufficient for the protection of the 
frontier against the Indian tribes. 

As "money is the sinews of war," it was only possible to create 
an army and to reconstruct the navy by first establishing the public 
credit. 

In 1860 there had been a long period of peace with foreign nations. 
For eight years the government had been in the control of the Dem- 
ocratic party. At the close of the Mexican war the debt was a trifle 
more than sixty-three million dollars, and the annual interest charge 
was less than three million and six hundred thousand. The Indian 
wars, the war in Utah, and the troubles in Kansas had so absorbed the 
revenues that the public debt the 30th of June, 1860, was about two 
million dollars more than it had been the 30th of June, 1849. This 
circumstance was of small moment in itself, but it indicates a lack 
of administrative faculty when considered in presence of the fact 
that the population of the country had risen from twenty-three mil- 
lion in 1850 to thirty-one million in 1860. 

The public debt was equal only to two dollars for each inhabitant, 
with an annual interest charge of twelve cents. In 1791 the public 
debt exceeded seventy five million dollars. This amount, distributed 
upon a population of less than four million, was equal to about 
twenty dollars for each inhabitant. That sum, so vast in comparison 
with the debt of 1860, had been paid in the year 1835, together with 
the cost of the war of 1812, which amounted to the sum of seventy- 
five million dollars in addition to the debt then remaining unpaid. 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 65 

From the day when the State debts were assumed under the ad- 
ministration of Hamilton and Washington, the nation had exhibited 
a wise and resolute good faith in everything relating to the public 
credit ; yet, in September, 1860, that credit was so impaired that the 
Secretary of the Treasury was only able to borrow seven million dol- 
lars under an authority to make a loan of twenty-one million and 
upon a call for bids to the amount of ten million dollars. 

The impairment of the public credit is attributed, usually, to the 
apprehensions then existing in the public mind as to the result of the 
pending elections and the consequent fate of the country. This may 
have been so, but whether so or otherwise, the cause of the impair- 
ment of the public credit is to be found in the position of the Demo- 
cratic party in reference to the threats and doctrines of the secession 
members of that party, or in its avowed or well-known opinions con- 
cerning the right of secession, or in the apparent indifference of its 
representative men, and especially of the President and his Cabinet, 
to maintain the Union by force, whenever it should be necessary to 
use force for that purpose. 

The act of the 22d of June, 1860, which authorized a loan of 
twenty-one million dollars, was designed to provide the means of re- 
deeming a like amount of Treasury notes then outstanding and soon 
to be due and payable. The failure of this loan compelled the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury to ask for authority to issue new Treasury 
notes to the amount of eleven million dollars with which to redeem 
the old notes then outstanding. As security for the payment of these 
notes he recommended a pledge of the public lands. This pledge 
Congress refused to give, but the bill authorizing an issue of Treas- 
ury notes to the amount of ten million dollars was approved the 17th 
of December, 1860. The notes were to be issued or sold at par, but at 
such rates of interest as might be agreed upon by the bidders and the 
Secretary. Under this license bids were received and the notes were 
sold at par and varying rates of interest, averaging between eleven 
and twelve per cent. 

There was a balance in the Treasury the first day of January, 1861, 
of two million, two hundred and thirty -three thousand, two hundred 
and twenty dollars* a sum inadequate for the safe management of a 
first-class bank. 

The deficiency for the fiscal year, estimated on a peace basis, 
amounted to twenty-four million dollars. By an act approved the 8th 
5 



66 * FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

of February, 1861, Congress authorized a loan of twenty-five million 
dollars. The bonds were to bear interest at a rate not exceeding six 
per cent., payable semi-annually. The principal was payable after 
ten and within twenty years. 

The Secretary of the Treasury advised Congress to tender to the 
purchasers of bonds a pledge of the claim against the several States 
for the surplus revenue deposited with them a quarter of a century 
before. This advice Congress did not follow. Only eighteen mil- 
lion of the bonds were taken and these were sold at an average price 
of 89.03 per cent, of their par value. 

Such was the condition of the national treasury and such the 
credit of the government when the Eepublican party came to power 
in March, 1861. 

If at that moment the Republican party was in any degree respon- 
sible, that responsibility proceeded from one or all of three facts: Its 
election of a president through the divisions in the Democratic 
party; or in its refusal to submit to the claim that a State could 
secede from the Union ; or, waiving the question of the right of a State 
to secede, upon its refusal to sanction the doctrine of Mr. Buchanan 
that the general government had no power, under the Constitution, 
to prevent by force the secession of a State. 

On the 4th day of March, 1861, Mr. Buchanan, as the representa- 
tive of the Democratic party, transferred to Abraham Lincoln a dis- 
severed Union, a government in form only, whose treasury was 
empty, whose credit was broken, whose navy was dispersed, whose 
army was weak in numbers and led in part by untrustworthy officers, 
with an impending war whose magnitude at the end was to be esti- 
mated by the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the expen- 
diture of thousands of millions of treasure. 

This statement indicates the nature of the undertaking to which 
the Republican party was called, but it does not disclose fully its 
magnitude. At the extra session of Congress, which began the 4th 
day of July, 1861, the President asked for authority to borrow four 
hundred million dollars. The Secretary of the Treasury estimated 
the expenses of the current fiscal year at three hundred and eighteen 
million dollars. 

At the end of the year it appeared that the expenses, exclusive of 
payments on account of the public debt, had been swollen to the 
enormous sum of four hundred and seventy million dollars. 

At the extra session of Congress acts were passed authorizing the 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 67 

issue of bonds and Treasury notes to an amount in the aggregate of 
more than three, hundred million dollars, and at a rate of interest not 
exceeding 7.3 per cent, per annum. Such was the effect upon the 
public mind of a vigorous administration of affairs, and such the 
confidence inspired by the purpose of the government to suppress the 
Rebellion and sustain the Union, that the loan was obtained and the 
means of prosecuting the war were secured. 

The rate of interest was two-thirds only of what had been paid in 
Mr. Buchanan's administration and the loan was ten-fold greater. In 
a period of war, in an exigency, it is not possible for a nation to dic- 
tate the rate of interest that it will pay upon loans. The ability to 
dictate terms depends upon two concurring conditions: First, a well- 
established credit; and secondly, having tendered a loan to the pub- 
lic, the ability to wait until capitalists are prepared to accept the 
terms. In 1861 and in 1862 the credit of the government was not 
established, and its necessities were such that no delays were possi- 
ble. When due weight is given to the circumstances then existing, 
it is not easy, even in this period of great fortunes and gigantic 
financial operations, to realize the fact that loans were made at the 
rate of a million dollars a day and upon moderate terms. 

The financial policy of the Republican party was dictated in the 
outset by the exigencies of war, but it was afterwards adapted to 
the circumstances and conditions of peace. 

The measures 6f that policy are divided, naturally, therefore, into 
two classes. As the credit of a government can neither be estab- 
lished nor preserved unless revenues are provided by systematic pro- 
cesses, it is wise in time of peace to meet every current expenditure, 
to which should be added payments upon the principal of any debt 
that may exist ; and. in time of war to so enlarge the revenues as to 
give assurance that the credit of the nation will be preserved until the 
return of peace. 

The secession of States and the resignation of Senators and Rep- 
resentatives left the two houses at the end of the thirty-sixth Con- 
gress in the control of the Republican party. By an act approved 
the 2d of March, 1861, the customs duties were increased upon many 
articles of merchandise. This act was followed by the statute of 
the 5th of August, 1861, the statute of the 14th of July, 1862, and 
the statute of the 30th of June, 1864. It was the design, as it was 
the effect of these measures, not only to provide revenues upon the 



68 FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

basis of a war policy, but also to give protection to the capital and 
labor of the country. 

The gross receipts from customs for the year ending the 30th of 
June, 1861, were a trifle less than forty million dollars; but for the 
year ending June 30th, 1864, they had risen to more than one hun- 
dred and two million. In the meantime labor and capital were profit- 
ably employed in all sections of the Union then free from the pres- 
ence of hostile armies. 

Another important measure designed to support the public credit 
was the act to authorize the issue of United States notes and for the 
funding of the public debt of the United States, approved the 25th 
of February, 1862. The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized 
to issue United States notes to the amount of one hundred and fifty 
million dollars, without interest. Those notes were receivable in 
payment of all taxes, excises, debts, and demands of every kind due 
to the United States, except duties on imports, and they were also 
endowed with the legal tender quality in payment of all debts, pub- 
lic and private, within the United States. The Secretary of the 
Treasury was required to receive such notes the same as coin and at 
their par value in payment of all bonds that might be thereafter sold 
or negotiated by him. 

By the same statute, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized 
to issue bonds bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per an- 
num, payable semi-annually, to an amount not exceeding five hun- 
dred million dollars. 

He was also authorized to receive deposits of money payable at 
any time after thirty days upon ten days' notice, and to allow interest 
for the use of the same at the rate of five per centum per annum. As 
the interest upon the bonds, so authorized, was payable in coin, it 
was provided that all duties should be paid in coin or in certain de- 
mand notes which had been issued to the amount of fifty million 
dollars under an at approved July 17th, 1861. The coin so received 
was pledged specifically, first to the payment of the interest on the 
bonds and notes of the United States, and secondly to the purchase or 
payment of one per centum of the entire debt of the United States, to 
be withdrawn each fiscal year after the first day of July, 1862. The 
bonds so purchased were to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the in- 
terest accruing thereon was to be paid to the credit of the sinking fund 
and made part of the capital thereof. The residue was to be paid into 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. by 

the Treasury of the United States. This act, in connection with the 
statutes which provided for the increase of the customs duties and 
the act passed in the month of July following, levying a direct tax 
upon the States for twenty million dollars and providing a system of 
internal revenue, established the public credit so firmly that the gov- 
ernment of the United States was able to create a debt of nearly 
three thousand million dollars and to prosecute the war without any 
delay due to the absence of the necessary means. 

The statute establishing the internal revenue system was approved 
July 1, 1862, and it was put into operation in the months of Septem- 
ber and October of the same year. The revenues from that source 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1863, amounted to thirty-seven 
million dollars, and for the year 1865 to two hundred and nine mil- 
lion. The total revenue created under that system, from its inaugu- 
ration to the close of the last fiscal year, was three thousand and 
ninety-eight million dollars, a sum greater than the public debt of 
the United States at any one time. This was the largest branch of a 
government ever organized in historical times. As early as the first 
of January, 1862, its business was greater than that of the entire 
Treasury Department at any time previous to March 4, 1861. 

Of all the measures of the war designed to establish the public 
credit, and to provide means for its prosecution, there was not one 
more important than the act establishing a national bank currency, 
approved the 25m of February, 1863. Previously to that time the 
paper currency of the country had been furnished by State banks, 
and under systems widely different, and generally without sufficient 
security for the redemption of the notes put in circulation. The 
national bank act required the corporators to deposit United States 
bonds in excess of the amount of circulation to be issued. The gov- 
ernment assumed the redemption of the notes issued by the national 
banks and reserved the right to be reimbursed by the sale of the 
bonds. Several important advantages were secured by the national 
banking system. First, the redemption of the currency was secured 
absolutely, and secondly, its value was the same in all parts of the 
country. 

In addition to these advantages the banks were required to pur- 
chase bonds of the United States and to deposit the same with the 
Treasurer for the security of their circulation. Thus a market for 
the bonds was created to the amount of three hundred million dollars. 

Finally, the banks were enlisted actively on the side of the govern- 
ment as agents for the sale of bonds to corporations and private parties. 

Of the leading financial measures of the war one only of them has 



70 FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

been assailed, either in the courts or before the country. The author- 
ity given to the Secretary of the Treasury, by the statute of the 25th 
of February, 1862, to issue United States notes and to make them a 
legal tender in the payment of all debts then existing, as well as of 
those which might thereafter be contracted, has been debated, con- 
tested, and adjudicated finally by the Supreme Court. 

That adjudication sustains the authority of Congress and vindi- 
cates the policy of the statute ; but it is an error to suppose that any 
countenance is given either by the statute or by the decision of the 
court to the notion that United States notes should be issued except 
upon a pledge of redemption in coin. 

The discretion, however, is vested in Congress, and upon the opin- 
ion given by Chief -Justice Marshall in the case of McCulloch v. The 
State of Maryland, the courts cannot interfere with its exercise. 

Upon one branch of the subject there has been no difference of 
opinion. The constitutional grant to Congress of the power to bor- 
row money is a grant so comprehensive in its terms that it of neces- 
sity includes the power to issue notes of any denomination, either 
with or without interest, and payable on demand or at any future 
time. With this concession, and in the presence of the opinion of 
the court in the case of McCulloch ». The State of Maryland, it 
follows that Congress may endow the notes which it authorizes 
with the legal tender quality, or it may refuse to so endow them. 
The power to borrow money and the power to levy taxes are 
supreme powers, and by processes of reasoning or by the exercise 
of the imagination many dangers may be demonstrated or suggested. 
But they are powers essential to national existence. They are powers 
that must be somewhere vested, and wherever vested there the discre- 
tion must be lodged also. Under our system the power is in Congress 
and the security against the abuse of the power is in the speedy respon- 
sibility of the representative to the constituency, through frequent 
elections. 

In 1862 Congress had no alternative. The United States notes con- 
stituted the only means by which the army was to be paid, supplied, 
and kept in the field. If the legal tender quality had been withheld 
from those notes, during what period of time could the government 
have obtained supplies in exchange for a currency which the cred- 
itors of those who furnished the supplies might receive or decline at 
their pleasure? 

Under our system, that figure of authority which we call government 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 71 

resides in citizenship, and each citizen is therefore an integral part 
of the government. Every sacrifice made, every duty imposed, 
every burden laid, when the proceedings are by due authority, 
is, in a constitutional sense, with the consent of all citizens. Every 
contract, which by its terms is not excepted out of the rule, is to be 
performed in the currency of the country at the time when the con- 
tract is liquidated. The power to decide the quantity and quality 
of that currency is an essential incident of sovereignty. 

If, in 1862, there had been a persistent refusal to issue legal tender 
notes, there would have remained no means by which the Rebellion 
could have been suppressed. A like exigency may arise in the future, 
either from domestic disturbance or foreign war. In defiance of all 
criticism, but under the Constitution, a precedent has been .made 
which assumes for the government the largest powers for its own 
preservation. 

During the administration of President Johnson, the attention of 
Congress was directed chiefly to the measures of reconstruction and 
to the questions in controversy between the legislative and executive 
departments of the government. 

Immediately after the inauguration of General Grant, an impor- 
tant act was passed, entitled "An Act to Strengthen the Public 
Credit." The bill was approved March 18, 1869, and it was the first 
legislative act of the Forty -first Congress. It is stated in the statute 
that the object was to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the 
government to discharge all just claims of public creditors and to 
settle the conflicting views of the laws by which such obligations had 
been contracted; and thereupon it was declared that the faith of the 
United States was pledged to the payment in coin, or its equivalent, 
of all the obligations of the United States known as United States 
notes and all interest-bearing obligations of the United States, unless 
it was expressly provided in such obligations that they might be paid 
in lawful currency, or other money than gold and silver. 

At that time the public debt of the United States amounted to 
about two thousand six hundred million dollars, and its credit was so 
much impaired that the six per cent, bonds of the United States were 
sold for gold at the rate of eighty-three cents on the dollar. In De- 
cember of the same year the Secretary of the Treasury recommended 
the passage of a law authorizing a new loan in the amount of twelve 
hundred million dollars, to be offered in three classes of four hun- 
dred million each, and to be payable at different periods of time. 



72 FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

The bonds of the several classes were to bear interest at the rate of 
five, four and a half, and four per centum per annum. In accordance 
with this recommendation, an act was passed by Congress and ap- 
proved July 14, 1870, entitled " An Act to authorize the Refunding 
of the National Debt." Of the interest-bearing debt all but about 
three hundred million dollars was subject to the rate of six per 
centum per annum. Agreeably to the provisions of the act of 1870 
and the acts in amendment thereof, the public debt has been re- 
funded so that it now bears interest at the rates of three, three and a 
half, four, and four and a half per centum per annum. In the month 
of August, 1865, the debt of the United States, exclusive of cash in 
the Treasury, amounted to two thousand seven hundred and fifty-six 
million dollars, and the interest charge exceeded one hundred and 
fifty million. On the 30th of June, 1883, the total debt, exclusive of 
cash in the Treasury, was one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight 
million dollars, and the interest charge was fifty-one and a half 
million. 

In the interval between the close of the war and the passage of the 
act to strengthen the public credit, serious doubts were entertained 
on both sides of the Atlantic, as to the ability and the disposi- 
tion of the country to provide means for the payment of the in- 
terest and principal of the public debt. Although the act of the 
25th of February, 1862, provided that the sinking fund system should 
be put into operation after June 30th of that year, the statute re- 
mained inoperative until the inauguration of President Grant. 

In the first year of his administration, the Secretary of the Treas 
ury made purchases of bonds for the sinking fund. This step was 
an assurance that the public debt would be paid — and paid in about 
thirty years — even if no other provision was made for its liquidation. 
All doubts were removed and threats of repudiation were not after- 
wards heard. Customs duties and taxes were collected, the revenues 
exceeded the expenses, and during the first term of President Grant's 
administration more than three hundred and sixty million dollars 
were applied to the payment of the interest-bearing debt of the 
country. 

Thus, under the administration of the government by the Repub- 
lican party, the two great problems of the war have been solved suc- 
cessfully. The Union has been restored and the enormous debt 
created for its preservation has been paid so rapidly that the four 



FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 73 

per cent, bonds of the government have been sold at the rate of 
twenty-five per cent, in excess of their par value. 

The history of the world furnishes no example for the financial 
successes of the government of the United States. For these successes 
the country is indebted to the skill, courage, and integrity of the 
Republican party. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PEOTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, AND ITS 
EFFECTS UPON THE WAGES OF LABORERS AND THE PRICES OF 
COMMODITIES. 

~TT is not the duty of a government to give employment to its sub- 
jects or citizens, but it is a duty to create and secure opportunities 
for employment. 

In every community the labor of many persons is required for the 
support, education, and comfort of its members. If all the citizens 
or subjects of a government are regarded as members of one com- 
munity, it is reasonable that their labor -should be directed to their 
own support in every branch of industry that is free from natural 
obstacles to its successful prosecution. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, England, France, and 
Holland were in possession of all the skill in manufactures and the 
productive arts that was common to the western world. Those 
nations possessed capital sufficient for every reasonable undertaking. 

England had discouraged manufactures in the Colonies, and the 
States of the new Republic had neither capital nor skilled labor. 
Political independence is not by necessity the equivalent of national 
freedom. The latter exists only when the internal resources of a 
nation are such that it may defy blockades by sea and frontier fortifi- 
cations on the land, and yet continue in the uninterrupted possession 
and enjoyment of the comforts and conveniences essential to domes- 
tic and social life. 

The possibilities of an agricultural community are limited to the 
productions essential to human existence, and in such variety only 
as the soil and climate will encourage or tolerate. A surplus of these 
productions may, through commerce, be exchanged for the manu- 
factures of other communities ; but as a condition of peace cannot 

(74) 



PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 75 

be assumed of any nation, and as commerce is the first and easiest 
victim of war, a constant and sufficient supply of the comforts and 
conveniences of life can be secured only by the application of domes- 
tic labor to manufactures and the arts. 

Of all the provisions of the Constitution, no one has contributed 
more to the industrial freedom of the United States than the para- 
graph which authorizes Congress to "promote the progress of science 
and the useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and 
inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and dis- 
coveries." Herein is found the extremest form of the doctrine of 
protection, yet there is no other provision of the Constitution that 
has contributed so largely to the material prosperity of the country 
and to the comfort of the people. Nearly every improvement in 
machinery, by which articles of consumption by the people generally 
have been reduced in cost and placed within the reach of all, is due 
to an invention that would not have been made had not the inventor 
been assured that he would enjoy the exclusive use and benefit of 
his invention for a period of time. Nearly every advance in manu- 
factures, from the hand-loom and spinning-wheel, is due to the 
stimulus given to the inventive faculties of man by the protection 
accorded to inventors. That protection has sustained the great body 
of inventors in their struggles against poverty, prejudice, and the 
disinclination of mankind to accept new ways in place of the old. 
Of the mass of inventors whose inventions have contributed to the 
prosperity and comfort of mankind, a few only have received ade- 
quate returns, either in fame or money. The private emoluments 
bear no just relation to the public benefits. 

If, to-day, the results of the system of protection to inventors 
could be destroyed, there is not a family upon the continent that 
would not be deprived of much the larger share of its comforts, con- 
veniencies, and luxuries. 

The invention of labor-saving machines was stimulated by the laws 
framed for the protection of their inventors; but the use of labor- 
saving machines could be secured only by protecting those who were 
employed to construct and operate them. Such protection, however, 
was not practical, nor would it have been useful, as between the citi- 
zens or inhabitants of our own country. 

As the knowledge and use of labor-saving machines cannot be 
limited to the country in which the inventions are made, a duty upon 
the products of such machines is the only adequate means of pro- 



76 PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

tecting our domestic labor, by giving to its results an advantage in 
the markets of the United States. The benefits of such a system are 
indirect as well as direct. The laborer in the mine, shop, or mill is 
saved from the full competition of the laborer in another country, 
who, from the circumstances in which he is placed, is compelled to 
give his labor for small compensation. 

Beyond this fact, it is also true that the supplies consumed by the 
laborer and his family are, in a large part, obtained from the vicinity. 
Those supplies, in the main, are furnished by the agricultural popu- 
lation. The farmers of England supply the laborers of Birmingham 
and Manchester ; the farmers of the United States supply the laborers 
of Pittsburgh and Lowell. If the goods now made in Pittsburgh and 
Lowell were made in Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham, the 
demand for the products of agricultural labor would be diminished 
in the United States, and proportionately increased in England. 

Nor is it an answer to the claim that the protective system benefits 
the laboring classes, to maintain that, as an increase of wages in the 
United States is followed by the migration of laborers from Europe, 
an equilibrium of prices is secured in the end, and the laboring 
populations of the countries whose commercial relations are intimate 
are brought, finally, to the same level. If this were true, the fact 
that it is better for the American farmer to have the exclusive con- 
trol of a near market than to take a chance in a distant market, 
would also be true. If, therefore, the operatives in a mill at Pitts- 
burgh were all of foreign birth, the articles for their subsistence would 
be furnished by American laborers in other departments of industry. 

Washington and Jefferson were advocates of protection to domestic 
labor, and the advantages of the system were as well stated and 
argued by Hamilton as they can be now stated and argued after a 
century nearly of experience under a protective system at times, and 
a system of free trade at other times. 

It is a singular historical fact, which admits of no explanation that 
can be justified to the reason of mankind, that the political party in 
the United States most hostile to Great Britain was also the party 
tbat was most hostile to a system of protection to domestic industry 
by which America, in the highest national sense, could be made 
independent of the mother country. 

Hamilton was an advocate of the British Constitution, and there 
was a period in his career when he would have accepted it as a model 
for the United States; yet he and the party which he founded were 



PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 77 

in favor of so organizing the policy of the new nation that it would 
be free, absolutely, in all its industrial and financial affairs. On the 
other hand, the party which had no sympathy for the political insti- 
tutions of Great Britain, originated and maintained a policy of free 
trade, under and against which our infant manufactures struggled 
for more than half a century. The tariff acts of 1816, 1828, and 
1842, gave temporary encouragement to the manufacturing industries 
of the country, but as the policy was controverted by the Democratic 
party, it was not easy to command either confidence or capital for 
new undertakings. 

In the year 1860, at the end of seventy years of national life, dis- 
tinguished by a vacillating policy upon the subject of protection, 
our manufactures in the aggregate amounted to no more than eight 
hundred and fifty-five million dollars upon an invested capital of 
one thousand and ten million dollars. 

Employment was thus given to 1,311,246 persons, to whom was 
paid, in the aggregate, the sum of $378,878,966 as annual wages. 
The laborers received an average of $288 each per annum. 

In 1880, the capital invested in manufactures amounted to $2,790,- 
272,606. The product had risen to the sum of $1,972,755,642. The 
wages paid to 2,732,595 operatives amounted to $947,953,795, or an 
average annual earning of $346. From the year 1860 to the year 
1880, the wages of the. operatives, including men, women, and chil- 
dren, had been advanced twenty per cent. In other words, the 
operatives who were employed in 1880 were in the receipt each year 
of the enormous sum of one hundred and sixty million dollars in 
excess of the amount that would have been paid to them upon the 
basis of the wages allowed in 1860. 

The aggregate wages paid in 1880 were one hundred and fifty per 
cent, greater than in 1860, while the increase in the number of hands 
employed was only one hundred and eight per cent. 

A statement made by the "Clark Thread Company," doing busi- 
ness at Paisley, Scotland, and Newark, New Jersey, proves beyond 
controversy the fact that the ability to manufacture in this country 
the thread furnished by that company is due, solely, to the protection 
given to it, unless, indeed, the wages of the operatives were reduced 
something more than fifty per cent. 

The correspondence between that company and Joseph Nimmo, 
Jr., Esq., Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, contains information of 



78 PROTECTIVE POLICY OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

great value. The "Clark Thread Company" have transferred a 
portion of their manufacturing business from Paisley to Newark. 
Two advantages accrue to the company: the goods are made near 
the market, and the duties are avoided. The advantages to this 
country by the transfer of the business are many. The buildings 
for the business and the houses for the operatives are the product of 
American labor, and the subsistence of the operatives gives employ- 
ment to mechanics and artisans in other departments, and creates a 
market for agricultural products. 

A comparison of the wages paid by this company in Paisley and 
in Newark shows that, except for the custom's duties, not one spool 
of thread would be made in Newark, unless the wages of the laborers 
were reduced about one-half. 

Clark Thread Company, 
Newark, N. J., January 31, 1882. 

Dear Sir: Your favor of yesterday is received. 

In reply to your question as to what number of hours the employes work in either 
place, would say that in Paisley the factories work ten hours daily, five days in the 
week, and Saturdays to 12 o'clock noon, making a half holiday for Saturdays. In 
Newark we work ten and one-half hours, five days in the week, and stop on Satur- 
days at half -past one, making for Newark 59 hours as against 55 for Paisley. 

With regard to your question as to the effectiveness of labor here and in Paisley, 
would say that my experience is about equal in both places, and the employes in 
either place, with the same machinery, will produce about the 6am e amount of work, 
and work as steadily in the one place as in the other. . . . Our business of making 
spool-cotton is only in process of development in this country, as there is still large 
quantities of six-cord imported, but is becoming less as we get our means of pro- 
duction extended. 

Any further information I can give yon, will be glad to do so; as I think it is best 
for you people to know the true inwardness of the business. 

Yours, respectfully, WILLIAM CLARK. 

J. Nimmo, Jr., Esq. 

Clark Thread Compant, 
Newark, N. J., March 31, 1882. 
Dear SrR: Yours of the 29th came duly to hand, and contents noted, and in reply 
would answer the statements contained therein, as under, which we trust will be 
what you require to close up your report. 

1. In regard to the machinery used in our two factories, would say that it is used 
in the same manner, but in a little larger extent in Paisley than in Newark. 

2. The organization of labor is similar. 

3. The methods pursued in the employment of labor is similar. 

4. The physical and intellectual ability of the operatives in both countries are 
about equal. 



PROTECTIVE POLICY OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 



79 



5. The following is a statement of the wages paid in both countries to the same 
class of workers, and the percentage of one over the other: 





Paisley. 


Newark. 


Newark 
over 

Paisley. 


GIRLS. 


Per week. 
$3 60 
3 60 
3 60 
2 35 
1 65 
1 50 

7 25 
7 25 
7 00 
6 50 
6 00 


Per week. 
$8 00 
8 00 
8 00 
5 50 
3 00 
2 50 

17 00 

18 00 
15 00 
13 50 
12 50 


Per cent. 
122 




122 




122 


Twisters 


135 




81 




66 


MEN. 


135 


Machinists 


148 


Dyers 

Bleachers 

Firemen 


114 

108 
108 



Hoping above will be satisfactory, we remain, yours truly, 

CLARK THREAD COMPANY, 
Per Contrell. 
Joseph Nimmo, Jb., Esq. 

Clark Thread Company, 
Newark, N. J., April 3, 1882. 
Dear Sir: We did make an error in our estimate of March 31, having omitted to 
take the difference in time of working hours between the two countries, but having 
looked it over and made that correction, we find the following result, which we 
think correct: Girls' average, Newark over Paisley, 99 per cent.; men's average, 
Newark over Paisley, 104. per cent., or 101£ per cent, total average. 
This is as near as we can get at it, and think you can safely take it as conclusive. 
Yours truly, CLARK THREAD COMPANY, 

Per Contrell. 
Joseph Nimmo, Jr., Esq., 

Chief of Bureau. 

It is thus apparent (1) that the laboring population of the United 
States, engaged in manufactures, is much better paid than is the 
laboring population of Great Britain ; (2) that the ability to manu- 
facture many kinds of goods and to pay the present rates of wages 
is due to the protective system ; and (3) that the operatives employed 
in the manufactories of the United States are in the receipt of better 
wages and in the enjoyment of more of the comforts of life than 
they could command in 1860. 

Nor is it true that the cost of maintaining a f amity in 1880 was 
greater than in 1860, assuming always the same facts as to the scope 
of the purchases made. 

The statement of the prices of leading articles of general use, pre- 
pared by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, but based upon a 



80 PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

report made by the Director of the Mint, with the aid of other 
authorities noted, establishes the proposition in a general sense. 

In a period of twenty years the habits of a people undergo great 
changes, and in many instances the laborer's savings are not greater 
at the end of the period than at the beginning; but, in the meantime, 
he and his family have enjoyed a larger share of the comforts and 
conveniences of domestic life. 

If the deposits in the savings banks are a test of the relative con- 
dition of the laboring classes as to the possession of capital, their 
aggregate accumulations were immensely greater in 1880 than in 1860. 

Statement of Prices of leading articles in the New York market in 1860 

and 1880. 

(Report of the Director of the Mint, 1881.) 

Flour, superfine, bbl., - 
Pork, mess, " 

Beef, mess, " 

Hams, lb., - 

Lard, " 

Sugar, Cuba, " 

" Loaf, " - 

Tallow, " - 

Molasses, New Orleans, gallon, 
Leather, lb., - 

Standard Sheeting, 36 in. wide (unbleached), 
" Shirting, 28 in. wide (unbleached), 

$29,767 $29,658 

a. From Report of N. Y. Produce Exchange of New York, 1880. 

b. Data furnished by Edward Atkinson of Boston. 

c. From N. Y. Shipping List for 1860. 

This table indicates that the cost of living was not greater in 1880 
than in 1860, and the census tables prove that the wages of the opera- 
tives in the mills were increased in that period by an addition of 
twenty per cent. , showing an annual gain to that class of laborers of 
one hundred and sixty million dollars. That vast sum they have 
either held as capital or they have expended it in additions to per- 
sonal and family comforts. 

But the advantages of protection do not end thus. A system 
which adds twenty per cent, to the wages of one class of operatives 



1860. 


1880. 


$5,190 


$4,135 


a 18.090 


a 13.230 


5.170 


11.119 


.096 


.084 


a. 117 


a. 079 


.085 


.070 


.098 


.086 


.100 


.063 


.465 


.370 


.215 


.212 


c.071 


6.077 


c.070 


6.053 



PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 81 

affects equally the wages of every class of laborers within the influ- 
ence of the system. 

In 1880, the number of inhabitants in the United States of the age 
of ten years and upwards was nearly thirty-seven million, and of 
these more than thirteen million were employed in agriculture, trade, 
transportation, mechanics, manufactures, and mining. Of the thir- 
teen million, two million and seven hundred thousand, or one-fifth 
of the whole, were employed in manufactures. Upon the basis of a 
direct gain to them by virtue of the system of protection of one 
hundred and sixty million dollars annually, and upon the theory that 
the laborers in other branches of industry enjoy equal benefits, the 
total gain to the laboring population is swollen to the enormous sum 
of eight hundred million dollars. 

If liberal allowances be made for errors, or even for exaggerations, 
there will remain a substantial quantity of truth justifying the state- 
ment that any change of policy which affects unfavorably the manu- 
facturing industries of the country, and especially any change which 
transfers the business in any sensible degree to England or to the 
Continent of Europe, is a policy fraught with peril to every laborer 
and to every capitalist in the land. 

The transfer of half a million of laborers from the mills to mining 
and agriculture would prostrate the entire system of labor for the 
whole country. 

When the demand for labor is checked the demand for the products 
of labor diminishes also. 

A single illustration will give voice to the magnitude of the evils 
that are incident to a loss of the means to purchase the products of 
industry in accustomed quantities. 

Of the entire population of the country, not less than thirty million 
are dependent directly upon the proceeds of labor for the means of 
subsistence. 

If these means are reduced annually to the extent of ten dollars 
only for each person, the aggregate decrease in the demand for the 
products of labor is three hundred million dollars. 

Under the protective system, one interest, and one only, has lan- 
guished, — the foreign carrying trade upon the ocean. 

Business upon the ocean is attended with more perils than wait 
upon business on the land, and the returns are more uncertain. 

During the war period the added dangers not only prevented the 
increase of our commerce, but they caused the destruction of that 
& 6 



82 PROTECTIVE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

which existed. Upon the return of peace, the opportunities for 
employment in agriculture, in manufactures, in the construction of 
railways, and in operating them, were so many and attractive that 
the ocean was neglected. 

The overthrow of our manufacturing system would be attended 
with the loss of these opportunities, and thousands of laborers would 
be driven to the sea for employment and subsistence. 

As long as this nation is, in its domestic industries, the most pros- 
perous of the nations having intimate commercial relations with each 
other, so long will our doings upon the ocean be very insignificant 
when compared with our business upon the land. 

It is understood that the Republican party is so pledged to the 
system of protection that no changes can be made under its lead or 
with its consent that shall tend to transfer the business of manufac- 
turing to other countries, or in any sensible degree impair the demand 
for labor in the United States, or lessen its rewards. 

It is understood, also, that the Republican party favors protection 
to agricultural products and raw materials, coupled with a system 
of drawbacks on the exportation of goods composed in whole or in 
part of materials on which duties have been paid. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE POLICY OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN REGARD TO THE 
PUBLIC LANDS. 

FOLLOWING the close of the Revolutionary War, and previous 
to the adoption of the Constitution, the States that claimed title 
by virtue of the colonial charters to the lands lying west of the thir- 
teen original colonies, and east of the Mississippi River, ceded their 
rights to the United States. These lands so added w.ere the subject 
of a Constitutional provision in these words: " The Congress shall 
have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations 
respecting the territory, or other property belonging to the United 
States." 

For the first hall century after the organization of the government, 
these lands were a source of revenue to which prominence was given 
in all the estimates of the Treasury Department, and in the financial 
debates in Congress. 

Grants were made to new States for educational purposes, and for 
public improvements. Bounties of lands were given to soldiers and 
sailors, and finally large concessions were made by alternate sections 
to companies authorized to construct railways over the public domain. 
When grants were made to railways the price of the reserved lands 
was increased one hundred per cent. 

By a statute passed in 1841, all the public lands not specially re- 
served were made subject to preemption by actual settlers at one 
dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. 

Rights were limited to one hundred and sixty acres. Previous to 
the passage of that act settlers who were upon the public lands had 
a right of preemption extended to them for a like quantity of land, 
and at the same price, when the claimant was in actual possession. 

The policy of the government for the first fifty or sixty years was 
marked by five distinct features: (1.) Sales of lands for revenue; 
(2.) grants to States for educational and other public purposes; (3.) 

(83) 



84 REPUBLICAN POLICY EST REGARD TO PUBLIC LANDS. 

bounties to soldiers; (4.) grants to railways; (5.) preemption rights 
to actual settlers. 

When the Republican Convention met at Chicago in May, I860* 
the House of Representatives had passed a homestead bill that was 
then pending in the Senate. The convention endorsed the House 
bill and demanded its passage. The Senate laid aside the House bill, 
and passed a bill reported from its own committee. Upon conference 
the two houses were brought to an agreement, and the bill was 
submitted to the pre sident, who returned it to the Senate with a mes- 
sage containing his objections. 

Upon the question: " Shall the bill pass, the objection of the presi- 
dent to the contrary notwithstanding," the yeas were twenty-seven 
and the nays were eighteen. Mr. Johnson of Tennessee voted in the 
negative for the purpose of moving a reconsideration. Upon the 
passage of the bill originally the yeas were forty-four and the nays 
eight. The seventeen negative votes on the question raised by the 
veto message were given by Democrats, and of these eight had voted 
for the bill upon the question of its passage. 

The veto message of President Buchanan made a distinct issue, 
and thenceforth' the scheme assumed a political character. A nom- 
inal price of twenty-five cents had been fixed in the bill. That sum 
was designed to meet the cost of making the surveys and maintaining 
the land offices. The bill also granted to States certain lands that 
were within the jurisdictions of the respective States. 

The president treated the grants to States and to settlers as gifts. 
In this view he was supported by the text of the bill, but he com- 
mitted a grave error when he denied to Congress the power to dispose 
of the land for any purpose except revenue. A contrary practice 
had prevailed for more than half a century, and that practice was an 
authoritative commentary upon the meaning of the words, " The 
Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging 
to the United States." 

If Congress could endow a system of schools in a State by a free 
gift of the public lands, with stronger reason could it grant a home- 
stead out of those lands to the head of a family whose children were 
to be educated in the schools. 

The constitutional grant to Congress of power to dispose of the 
public lands was a broad power. It would have been equally easy, 
and more natural, to have limited the power to the sale of the lands, 



REPUBLICAN POLICY IN REGARD TO PUBLIC LANDS. 85 

if such had been the purpose of the convention. That this was not 
done justifies the inference that it was the intention to allow Congress 
to dispose of the lands in that way which seemed most conducive to 
the public interest. 

Previous to the passage of the act, approved the 20th of May, 
1862, granting a homestead upon the public lands to certain persons 
named in the act, the title from the United States could be acquired 
only by virtue of the preemption laws which authorized the head of 
a family, or widow, or a single person, over twenty-one years of age, 
and a citizen of the United States, to make a location of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres at a cost of one dollar and twenty -five cents 
per acre, or by the location of bounty land warrants which had been 
issued to officers and soldiers who had performed service in some 
one of the wars in which the country had been engaged. Aliens 
who had filed an intention to become citizens of the United States, 
were also entitled to the benefits of the preemption laws. Since the 
act of May, 1862, was passed, no authority has been given for the 
issue of bounty land warrants, but, by the statute of the 8th of June, 
1872, every sailor, soldier, and officer who had served ninety days 
during the late Rebellion was authorized to enter upon any of the 
reserved sections df the public lands along the line of any railroad, 
and locate a quarter, section of one hundred and sixty acres, and 
receive a patent therefor. The alternate section of lands along the 
the lines of railroads for which grants had been made, were reserved 
by the government, and valued at two dollars and a half an acre. 
Other public lands could be taken under the preemption laws at a 
dollar and a quarter per acre. Every sailor, soldier, and officer who 
was thus authorized to make entry upon the reserved lands was 
allowed six months after the location to make entry and commence 
his improvements. 

By the act of 1862, every person who was the head of a family, or 
who had arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and who was a citizen 
of the United States, or, who, being an alien, had declared his inten- 
tion to become such, was authorized to make entry of one quarter of 
a section of land as a homestead, of any of the lands subject to 
preemption at a dollar and a quarter per acre, or eighty acres of 
the reserved lands, and subject to preemption at two dollars and 
a half an acre. The title, however, could be acquired only by five 
years' continuous residence unless the settler should plant trees upon 
the same in the proportion of one acre of forest to every sixteen 



86 REPUBLICAN POLICY IN REGARD TO PUBLIC LANDS. 

acres of land. In such case the title could he acquired at the end 
of three years. All mineral lands are excluded from the operation 
of the preemption and homestead laws, but, by the statute of the 
10th of May, 1872, they were declared to be free and open to explora- 
tion and purchase whether the same had, or had not, been surveyed. 
By the same statute the limits of each location were prescribed. 

Claimants are required to expend at least five hundred dollars in 
labor upon each claim. After public notice of the. existence of a 
claim, and the expiration of sixty days therefrom, if no contestant 
appears, the claimant is entitled to a patent upon the payment of five 
dollars an acre to the proper officer. For the homestead system the 
Republican party is responsible. 

In every country, and under every system of government, the 
ownership of land by the larger portion of the people has been a cause 
for congratulation, and the fact has been treated as evidence of 
stability in the government. The wisdom of the homestead act can 
be demonstrated by whatever resonable test is applied. And first of 
all as to revenues. When President Buchanan vetoed the homestead 
bill in 1860, the Secretary' of the Interior estimated that the revenue 
from the sale of lands would be four million dollars for the next fiscal 
year. 

Can there be a doubt that the increase of population, due to the 
homestead act, has added to the customs and internal revenue receipts 
a sum very much in excess of four million dollars annually? 

The homestead system has stimulated migration from the older 
and most densely populated States to the frontier States and the terri- 
tories, diminishing consequently the number of persons who depend 
for subsistence upon the sale of their labor, and increasing the num- 
ber who depend for subsistence upon the sale of the products of 
their labor. The sale of labor is a necessary incident in the prosecu- 
tion of business, but it is less conspicuous in agriculture than in 
manufactures, commerce, and the mechanic arts. 

Population tends to the commercial cities and manufacturing 
towns. Any surplus of population, or of labor, in cities and large 
towns, generates, speedily, social and political evils of the gravest 
sort. The homestead system has counteracted this tendency, and 
multitudes of men who otherwise could not have escaped from the 
condition of dependent laborers, are now independent landholders 
and influential citizens of great and growing States. 
The productive powers of mankind are now so vast, the competi- 



REPUBLICAN POLICY IN REGARD TO PUBLIC LANDS. 87 

tion so active, the relations and interests of nations are so intimate 
and interwoven with each other, that it is no longer possible, even in 
the United States, to exclude the paternal quality of government 
from the administration of our affairs. 

The chief problem of all is to so encourage and diversify indus- 
tries as to secure constant and profitable employment upon the land 
for the largest possible proportion of our inhabitants. 



CHAPTER XL 



THE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN FAVOR OF UNIVER- 
SAL EDUCATION. 

WHEN the Republican party was formed its power was in those 
States that had been distinguished for their interest in sys- 
tems of public instruction. 

Indeed, it may be assumed that the general intelligence of the 
people in the old Free States, is due to the system of free schools, 
and that except for that general intelligence the Republican party 
could not have been organized into a controlling majority. As in the 
beginning the party was composed of men who did not agree in 
measures of public policy outside of the slavery question, the organ- 
ization of the party could only be preserved and its growth increased 
by concessions upon subordinate topics. 

Such concessions are made only by men whose intelligence is so 
great that they can discriminate between measures and policies that 
are vital and those which are expedient. 

The Free State party in Kansas was composed of men who repre- 
sented fairly the States that supported Gen. Fremont in 1856. 

Torn and wasted as Kansas had been by the invasions of slave- 
holders and Federal troops in the vain attempt to make it ' ' slave " 
territory, that border community of hardy Republicans incorporated 
into its first organic law a free, public, graded system of schools, 
embracing "common, normal, preparatory, collegiate, and univer- 
sity departments." It established a public school-fund which now 
amounts to about $2,500,000. 

The confidence of Congress in the final triumph of the govern- 
ment was manifested in the passage of the bill " donating public lands 
to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for 
the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," approved July 2, 
1862. 

(88) 



POLICY IN FAVOR OP UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 89 

The darkest period of the war was the summer of 1862. The 
credit of the government was impaired, and a complete system of 
taxation had not been devised ; yet such was the confidence of the 
Republican party in the ultimate triumph of the North, and such its 
interest in general education, and especially in agricultural education, 
that an appropriation was made which has absorbed more than nine 
million acres of public land. 

In the year 1859, Congress passed a similar bill, which was vetoed 
by Mr. Buchanan. His objections were based in part upon the Con- 
stitution. He claimed that Congress had no power to make a grant 
of the public lands as a gift, and yet he admitted that the concessions 
to the new States of one or two sections in each township in aid of 
public schools was within the constitutional power of Congress, 
inasmuch as a wise landholder, who had large bodies of land for 
sale, would make a similar donation. 

This concession was fatal to his argument. If the authority given 
to Congress "to dispose of the territory" of the United States could 
be so construed as to justify a free grant for education, then the 
theory that Congress had only power to sell the lands was a false 
theory. If Congress might in its judgment grant a section of land 
in each township for the use of schools, and the act be justified upon 
the ground that the concession was beneficial indirectly to the grantor, 
might not Congress make a similar grant for any other purpose that 
in its judgment would inure to the benefit of the United States ? 

A charter was granted for the city of Washington in 1802, but no 
provision was made nor powers given for establishing public schools, 
nor did Congress grant any aid to the struggling city for educational 
purposes. When the charter was amended in 1820, the corporation was 
authorized ' ' to provide for the establishment and superintendence of 
public schools, " but no endowment or other help was given. In 
1848, Congress again amended the charter, allowing the corporation 
to collect a tax of one dollar per annum from free, white, male, adult 
citizens for the support of common schools. 

Mr. Jefferson, President of the United States, was a member of 
the school board for three years (1805-1808), and although much 
private and some public spirit was manifested occasionally in behalf 
of public education, all municipal action related to schools for whites 
only. When the war began in 1861, there were eleven flourishing 
schools in the District of Columbia, for the education of colored 
children, but they were private enterprises. It was under the Repub- 



90 POLICY IN FAVOR OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION. 

lican party, that the acts of Congress, approved May 20th, May 21st, 
and July 11; 1862, were passed, whereby public instruction for youth 
of both races was provided. Under the rule of the Republican 
party new and spacious school buildings have been provided, capa- 
ble teachers are employed, and such appropriations are made as 
warrant the prediction that the city is to take rank with the most 
advanced cities of the country in whatever relates to public education. 

The emancipation of the colored people in the South was followed 
in 1865, by the Act of Congress establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, 
designed to supply an agency which should discharge the moral 
obligations incurred by the National Government to the refugees and 
f reedmen of the disorganized Southern States, till such time as return- 
ing peace and civil order should permit the formation of new govern- 
ments and institutions, state and local, adjusted to the conditions of 
the new era. Hundreds and thousands of schools were opened or 
assisted by the Freedmen's Bureau ; and during the seven years of 
its existence it expended about $5,000,000 for educational purposes. 
At the close of the war the States that had been engaged in the 
Rebellion were reorganized under the direction and subject to the 
control of the Republican party. 

In the new constitution of each State, provision was made for a 
system of public instruction. 

In March, 1867, a law was enacted which authorized the establish- 
ment of a Department of Education at Washington for the purpose 
of collecting such statistics and facts as would show the condition 
and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and 
also for the purpose of diffusing information respecting the organi- 
zation and management of schools, school systems, and methods of 
teaching. 

The Department of Education has been in operation for a period 
of sixteen years. The work it has done has removed all doubts as to 
the wisdom of the undertaking. 

It would not be just to claim for the Republican party exclusive 
merit for the educational systems of the country; but its policy in 
the South during the period of reconstruction has given to the old 
Slave States a system of public schools, and imposed upon them a 
constitutional obligation to maintain them. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE INCEEASE OF THE COUNTRY IN POPULATION AND WEALTH 
SINCE 1860, AND THE POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN 
RELATION TO THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS AT HOME AND ABROAD^ 

BY the census report for 1860, the property of the country was 
estimated at more than sixteen thousand million dollars. The 
valuation, as made in 1880, shows a total of less than seventeen thou- 
sand million dollars. 

Manifestly, the estimates made in 1860 were erroneous to the 
extent of thousands of millions. Their erroneous character is ad- 
mitted by the superintendent of the census. In his preliminary 
report, he says; " The marshals of the United States were directed to 
obtain from the records of the States and Territories, respectively, 
an account of the value of real and personal estate as assessed for 
taxation. Instructions were given these officers to add the proper 
amount to the assessment, so that the return should represent as well the 
true or intrinsic value as tlie inadequate sum generally attached to prop- 
erty for taxable purposes." 

Under these instructions there could have been no uniformity of 
action by the marshals and their numerous deputies, and, conse- 
quently, the results were of no importance whatsoever. The value 
of statistics depends usually upon their accuracy and completeness. 
Statistics in regard to property cannot be accurate, however, in the 
sense that statistics of mortality may be accurate; but if they are 
gathered upon a basis that is systematic, and of record, the results of 
one period are valuable for comparison with the results of other 
periods. As the imagination or the opinions of the marshals and 
deputy marshals were the guides in the valuation of property in 
1860, the results reached were then of no importance nor can they 
now be quoted for the purposes of comparison. 

Slave property was then included and it has now disappeared. 

(91) 



i KJS*^ 



92 INCREASE IN POPULATION AND WEALTH SLNCE 1860. 

The population of the country, in 1860, was hardly more than 
three-fifths of what it was in 1880. 

Common observation demonstrates the fact that the average con- 
dition of the people, as to property, was less favorable in 1860 than 
it now is. If the estimated value of slaves be excluded from this 
calculation the statement is as true df the old Slave States as of the 
Free States. The productive power of the Slave States was never, 
previous to the year 1860, equal to what it is at present. 

In 1860, the property of Massachusetts was estimated, for the pur- 
poses of taxation, at eight hundred and ninety-seven million dollars ; 
in 1880, it was estimated for the same purpose at one thousand five 
hundred and eighty-four million dollars. 

* The gain in Massachusetts was about seventy-six per cent, for the 
entire period of twenty years. 

If the same ratio of gain be accepted for the whole country the 
true valuation, in 1860, could not have exceeded nine thousand and 
five hundred million dollars. 

It thus appears that the gains of the country in wealth during the 
first twenty years of Republican administration were equal to more 
than three-fourths of the total accumulations in the previous period 
of nearly two and a half centuries. 

An administration whose policy is so wise that such results are 
possible is entitled justly to public support. This would be true if 
that policy were wholly negative. The faculty in government which 
allows the people to so use their capacities and capital as to secure 
the largest results may well be dignified as a political virtue. To 
do this when an expensive war was waged and heavy taxes were 
levied was the fortune of the Republican party. 

Its management of the finances, its system of protection to labor, 
by which agriculture, the mechanic arts, and manufactures were 
stimulated, and the field of their operations extended, and the home- 
stead act which induced multitudes of intelligent Europeans to 
transfer their allegiance to the United States, were among the chief 
material agencies by which the general prosperity was promoted and 
the wealth of the nation augmented. 

Until recently the public law of Europe did not recognize the 
right of the individual to choose the government to which he would 
render allegiance; and it was only upon the passage of the law of 
the 27th of July, 1868, that the doctrine of expatriation was accepted 
as the fixed policy of the United States. Previous to that event 



INCKEASE m POPULATION AND WEALTH SINCE 1860. 93 

jurists, statesmen, and diplomatists, had entertained differing opin- 
ions and the authorities were in conflict with each other. 

Manifestly, there could be no legal nor logical basis for national 
interference in behalf of a naturalized citizen of the United States, 
who, in his native country, might be required to perform military 
service, unless the right of expatriation were first asserted as well as 
recognized. 

The right was asserted in the statute of 1868, and the consequent 
duty of the United States Government was also set forth in these 
words: "Whereas the right of expatriation is a natural and inher- 
ent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights 
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and, whereas, in the 
recognition of this principle, this Government has freely received 
emigrants from all nations, and invested them with the rights of 
citizenship ; and whereas it is claimed that such American citizens, 
with their descendants, are subjects of foreign States, owing allegi- 
ance to the governments thereof ; and, whereas, it is necessary to the 
maintenance of public peace that this claim of foreign allegiance 
should be promptly and finally disavowed; therefore, any declara- 
tion, instruction, opinion, order, or decision of any officer of the 
United States which denies, restricts, impairs, or questions the right 
of expatriation, is declared inconsistent with the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the Republic. " 

" All naturalized citizens of the United States, while in foreign 
countries, are entitled to and shall receive from this government the 
same protection of persons and property which is accorded to native- 
born citizens." 

There is no evidence that, previous to the year 1868, either Great 
Britain or any of the principal continental nations of Europe, with 
the exception of France, recognized the right of expatriation as a 
personal right. Two theories and two rules of action existed. Great 
Britain and Austria maintained the doctrine that subjects could not 
assume any of the obligations of citizenship in another government 
without the consent of the mother country, first obtained. On this 
theory expatriation could not be asserted as a right, but it might be 
obtained as a grant. In other States it was admitted that the subject 
could assume the duties of citizenship in a foreign government, but 
that upon his return to his native land all his obligations as a sub- 
ject would be revived. In this theory there can be found no quality 
of the doctrine of expatriation as a right. 



94 INCREASE IN POPULATION AND WEALTH SINCE 1860. 

Upon the issues thus raised, Great Britain claimed the right to 
seize and search American vessels, and to take therefrom British- 
born seamen, and that without reference to the fact that in some 
instances they had beconje citizens of the United States. This claim 
led to the war of 1812, and there was no waiver of the claim in 
the treaty of peace. 

Upon the issues th^is raised Prussia claimed the right to exact 
military service of naturalized citizens of the United States, who, 
having been born in Prussia, might be sojourning temporarily in 
that country. 

These claims were supported in a measure by a reference to con- 
gressional, diplomatic, and judicial proceedings in the United States. 

The increase in the United States of foreign-born citizens, who, 
with their immediate descendants, were claimed as subjects by other 
governments, led to the passage of the law of 1868, and to the for- 
mation of treaties with the principal nations of Europe, excepting 
France only, in which the doctrine of expatriation is recognized as a 
personal right. Beginning in 1868, twelve such treaties have been 
made. The chief contracting parties are Great Britain, Austria, 
Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the North German 
Empire, represented by the King of Prussia. 

Thus has the public law of Europe been changed by the agency of 
the United States. The ability to dictate that change was due in a 
large degree to the supremacy of the United States as a military 
power, and its recognition as such by the nations of Europe. Thus 
has been secured to each of the thousands of naturalized citizens the 
right to return to his native land free from any apprehension that 
military or other service will be required of him. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

THE history of a political party furnishes better means for testing 
its quality and estimating its claims to public confidence than 
can be deduced from the professions of its leaders or the platforms 
of its conventions. 

The government of the country was in the hands of the Demo- 
cratic party during four Presidential terms of the six terms next 
preceding the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. 

Upon the death of General Harrison and the succession of Mr. 
Tyler in April, 1841, the administration was controlled in a large 
degree by the leaders of the Democratic party. 

In the long period, therefore, of twenty-four years, from 1837 to 
1861, there were only temporary interruptions to the domination of 
the Democratic party, as represented by the Southern leaders, in 
the government of the country. 

The annexation of Texas, the consequent war with Mexico and the 
vast acquisitions of territory, which followed, have inured to the 
benefit of the country, but the scheme of annexation was designed 
and executed for the advancement of the system of slavery. It is 
not to the credit of the Democratic party that a scheme designed 
to foster that system has been controlled for the advantage of free- 
dom and the extension of free institutions. 

Of the legislation of those twenty-four years one measure only of 
importance remains upon the statute books of the country. The 
independent treasury system exists. In all other respects its finan- 
cial experiments have failed, and its financial theories have been 
abandoned. 

Its ancient doctrine of State rights, by which the national govern- 
ment was subordinated to the will of individual States, has become 

(95) 



96 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

odious to the people. In obedience to this doctrine of State rights 
the party continued in a persistent defence of the institution of 
slavery. At the end, the Southern half of the party engaged in 
rebellion; a portion of the Democratic party of the North either 
encouraged or tolerated the treasonable conduct of their brethren of 
the South; while a minority, not exceeding one-fourth of the entire 
organization, united their fortunes with the Republican party, and 
contributed their full share to the prosecution of the war and the 
destruction of slavery. 

If the Democratic party is to be judged by its record from 1837 to 
1861, there is no ground for the belief that it would so administer 
the affairs of the government as to meet the demands of the present 
period. When it lost power in 1860, its tariff policy, and its finan- 
cial ideas were alike distasteful to the people. Not to Republicans 
only; the failure of their policies was admitted by themselves. 

From 1860, to the present time, the Democratic party has resisted 
every new measure, and more especially those relating to human rights, 
— but when those measures had been adopted by the country it has 
been constrained to give them a tardy approval. Each year has 
produced a new issue, and each year has found the party yielding 
assent to some measure which it had previously condemned. 

It opposed Emancipation, and it opposed each of the three Amend' 
ments to the Constitution, nevertheless it has been compelled to 
accept and endorse them all. 

It opposed the homestead laws, the policy of making grants of 
lands to the agricultural colleges, and the system of improving the 
rivers and harbors at the public expense. Now it dare not avow its 
opposition to those measures, or to the policies in which they have 
their origin. 

The National Bank System was introduced and adopted as a meas- 
ure of Mr. Lincoln's administration, but it was opposed by the 
Democratic members of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
and with great unanimity. 

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of thirty Senators in the 
affirmative and nine in the negative. The affirmative votes were 
given by Republicans. In the House of Representative the bill was 
agreed to by a vote of eighty Republicans in the affirmative over the 
vote of sixty-four Democrats and two Republicans in the negative. 
Of the two Republicans, one was from Maryland, and the other was 
from Missouri. 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 97 

The opposition of the Democratic party was due to its State rights 
notions which then found expression in a fear of centralization. 
That fear was groundless, if any injurious results to the public wel- 
fare were apprehended. 

There are two thousand and five hundred national banks, with an 
aggregate capital of five hundred million dollars. They are doing 
business in all the States and Territories of the Union. They are 
managed by citizens whose interests are identified with those States 
and Territories. The assumption by the general government of the 
power to provide a currency for the whole country was an act of 
centralization ; but there is no centralization of capital or of man- 
agement that might not have existed under the State system. 

There is a class of duties that may be performed by States in case the 
National Government does not assert its better right. The banking 
system belongs to that class. Until the year 1863, the business of 
furnishing a circulation of paper was left to the States. The exi- 
gencies of the war compelled Congress to assume jurisdiction of the 
subject. It is a noticable fact that the Democratic party never 
admitted that the exigencies of the public service required a change 
of policy on its part. 

Assuming always that the war was unnecessary, it followed that 
exigencies should not control the public policy. In the opinion of 
the Democratic party an easy way was before the country. The 
remedy was peace. 

Within the limits prescribed by the Constitution, the question, 
whether a particular power should be exercised by the general gov- 
ernment or left with the States, is a question for Congress. Congress 
is composed of representatives of the States and of the people. If 
our theory is not false in a fatal degree, those representatives will 
confer power upon the general government or withhold power as 
may seem most advantageous to the public interest. Anything in the 
nature of a usurpation is impossible. The parties are the same. 
The citizens of the States are citizens of the United States also. 
They have but one interest, and that is to lodge the exercise of the 
power where the advantage will be the greatest and the injury the 
least. 

Within constitutional limits the people may concentrate the exer- 
cise of discretionary powers in the hands of the general government 
or they may confide their exercise to the States. 



98 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

The power to furnish a bank currency is now lodged with the 
general government, and after an experience of twenty years the 
claim may be made safely, that the system has never been excelled, 
in this or in any other country. It embodies every advantage that 
was claimed for a national bank, when, in the administration of 
General Jackson, the Whig party sought to recharter the United 
States Bank, and it avoids every evil that the enemies of that insti- 
tution alleged against it. The system is free, and the currency 
being equally valuable in every part of the Union, the old evil of 
domestic exchange has disappeared. While the State Bank System 
existed the question of exchange between cities distant from each 
other, as New York and New Orleans, was an element of trade 
more important than is now the rate of exchange between New 
York and London. 

The preservation and perpetuation of the system is a subject 
of large public concern. As the bonds of the United States are the 
basis of the circulation, and as these bonds are now subject to pur- 
chase and payment at a rate which will lead to the withdrawal of 
those now held as security .for the redemption of bank notes, a 
friendly hand is needed to so adjust the revenues of the country to 
its expenditures as to continue the system for an indefinite period. 

As the Democratic party opposed the system at the outset, and as 
it has never exhibited any friendship for it, there can be no violence 
in assuming that it would willingly see it die. 

The capital invested in national banks exceeds five hundred million 
dollars, their loans aggregate a thousand and three hundred million 
dollars, and their other assets are not less than one thousand million 
dollars more. The overthrow of this system, even if it were possi- 
ble to substitute a better one, or its gradual disappearance, would be 
attended with financial evils that would reach and embarrass every 
branch of business. The loans are generally to men of business 
whose capital does not equal their opportunities for the employment 
of capital. A financial change which should require the business 
men of the country to pay these loans, would cripple them while 
other sources of capital were sought and secured. In the meantime, 
production would diminish, laborers would lose employment, sales 
would fall off, all to be followed by still greater reduction in manu- 
factures, trade, and consumption. 

There is in the country a body of men who advocate the issue of 
United States notes without an accompanying pledge or promise of 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. Wf 

payment in coin. This class of financiers, believers, as they are, in 
the capacity of the government to extemporize wealth, or the repre- 
sentative of wealth, are either members of the Democratic party or 
in close alliance with it. When the country is prosperous they either 
diminish in number, or they lose audience among the people. Their 
voice is not much heard in the land when capital and labor are 
employed and are in the enjoyment of adequate returns. 

In periods of depression they offer an unlimited issue of irredeem- 
able United States notes as the sure and only remedy. This heresy 
had many disciples in the year 1873, and afterwards, until the return 
of prosperity. So powerful was their influence in the Democratic 
party that old and trusted leaders of that organization yielded, tem- 
porarily, to its control. 

The remedy for financial and business disorders which these theo- 
rists propose is most frequently the cause of those disorders. 

Periods of depression in business will occur. They are inevitable. 
There is no system of finance, no skill of administration in govern- 
ment that can protect a commercial country against their recurrence. 
Bad harvests, war, peace, pestilence, may, one or all, either cause 
financial disasters or contribute to their severity. 

A sure cause of such disasters exists always in a paper currency 
that is constantly increasing in volume as compared with the increase 
of wealth. A currency based upon and redeemable in coin has its 
limits ; but there are no assignable limits to the issue of irredeemable 
paper money. Additions to the volume of currency advance prices, 
promote speculation, lead men into dangerous or visionary under- 
takings, increase personal and family expenditures, all to end, finally, 
in failures, loss of confidence, a sudden depression of prices, suspen- 
sion of manufacturing industry, loss of employment by the laborers, 
and losses of fortunes by capitalists. A stable currency is the best 
security against such evil consequences. Most certainly the remedy 
is not to be found in a policy which would produce the disasters. 
The Republican party is pledged to the system of redemption of all 
paper money in coin. Of "the Democratic party nothing can be 
assured in regard to the currency. 

The policy of the Democratic party in regard to the tariff system 
is either uncertain or dangerous, and if uncertain it is probably dan- 
gerous also. 

The history of the Democratic party from 1837 to 1860, would lead 
to the conclusion that it would favor free trade as a principle of 
public policy, and a tariff Tor revenue only as a wise application of 



100 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

the principle in a government that must rely upon customs duties as 
the chief means of support. 

The history of the party and its traditions found expression in the 
platform of 1880. During the first session of the 48th Congress, Mr. 
Randall has taken ground as an advocate of the protective policy. 

His defection has been sufficient, in alliance with the members of 
the Republican party, to prevent the passage of a bill framed upon 
the theory that the government should advance as rapidly as possible 
towards a free-trade system. The effect of the Morrison bill upon 
the existing industries of the country and its influence in promoting 
or retarding the introduction and development of new industries, 
are topics which demand attention ; but the policy of the measure is 
of more consequence than its immediate effects. It is more import- 
tant to understand the purposes of the authors of a tariff bill than 
it is to comprehend the effects of the measure itself. A bill framed 
by the friends of the protective system might prove injurious to 
some branches of industry, but the purpose being otherwise the 
country and the sufferers themselves would look for remedial legisla- 
tion. On the other hand, when a bill is framed upon the theory that 
the price of American products should be controlled by the cost in 
other countries, the domestic manufacturers and the laborers may 
wisely assume that the business is to come to an end ultimately, or 
the wages of labor are to be reduced to the equivalent of the wages 
in that country where the laborer in each branch of industry is 
commanded at the lowest cost. 

The proposition embodied in the policy which underlies every free- 
trade measure is that the American manufacturer and the American 
laborer are to be put into direct competition with the manufacturer 
and laborer in that country where the particular manufacture to 
which capital and labor are here directed, is produced at the least 
cost. 

Under the protective system concessions may be made from time to 
time without injury to the industries to which the concessions relate. 
It is the theory of the protective system that protection should be 
granted to those industries only to which the country is so well 
adapted, in natural facilities and skill in machinery and in the use of 
machinery that we can rival the most favored or the most advanced 
nations within a reasonable period of time. This rule works the 
exclusion from the domain of the protective system of those indus- 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 101 

tries to which the country is not adapted by nature and by circum- 
stances. 

When the country has attained to an equality with the nations 
farthest advanced, in the particulars of machinery and skilled labor, 
there will still remain a reason for the protection of the laborer in 
his wages and the manufacturer in his capital, in the matter of the 
rate of interest in the rival countries. 

Equality of natural advantages being given, there remain four 
important elements to which competition in manufactures relate, 
viz. : (1.) Interest on capital. (2.) Wages of the operatives. (3.) 
Perfection of machinery. (4.) Skill of the operatives and mechan- 
ics who are employed in the business. 

It has happened in some branches of industry that the skill of 
American operatives and mechanics was such as to defy competi- 
tion ; that our machinery was equal to that of other countries, and yet 
protection was needed as security against cheap labor and cheap cap- 
ital. And even in cases where our skill is such as to defy competi- 
tion a duty upon the importation of the article may be expedient. 
Assume that, in England, for example, there has been an overpro- 
duction of an article that is produced at the same cost as in the 
United States. 

If the article can be sent to this country and sold without payment 
of duties the surplus would find its way to our shores. 

As the price must be broken down in the United States or in Eng- 
land, it would be for* the interest of the English manufacturers to 
save the home market and to crush the foreign market. The ruin of 
the foreign market, and the destruction of rival manufacturers would 
open, the way for future sales at compensating prices. It is to be 
said also, that the imposition of a duty upon an article which is pro- 
duced at home at its cost in other countries adds nothing to the price 
of the article in the domestic market. 

Practically there can be no such system as "a revenue system 
with incidental protection. " If a system is devised for the purpose 
of obtaining revenue, the rate of duties must be such as to permit 
the importation of so much of each article as the country may need, 
and a rate of duty must be imposed, as heavy as can be levied, 
without encouraging the manufacture at home. The counter propo- 
sition is the true one. There may be a system of protection to 
domestic industry that shall incidentally yield a revenue. 

A single example will illustrate both of these propositions. Assume 



102 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

that a ton of English pig iron can be laid down in New York, under 
a free-trade system, at twenty dollars. Assume also that a ton of 
American pig iron will cost twenty-five dollars. Assume further, 
that the demand for the trade of New York is a million tons annually. 
If the duty be fixed at $4. 50 per ton, a revenue of four and a half 
million dollars may be realized, and not one ton of American iron 
can be sold except at a loss. 

If otherwise the duty be laid at six dollars per ton the American 
producer would have an advantage over the English producer, and 
in time the English article would be driven from the market, except 
for two or three circumstances. The English maker might have the 
means of reducing his labor and expense account to the extent of a 
dollar per ton, or an excess of product in England might compel 
him to seek this market, or he might occasionally avail himself of a 
sudden demand in America, which the home producer could not 
meet. Thus incidentally a system of protection will yield a revenue, 
but the same process of reasoning show* that a revenue system can 
not give protection as an incident. 

Upon the question of protection the Republican party is a unit 
substantially. Any movement by that party, when in power, is 
accepted by the country as a friendly proceeding. Consequently, 
business is not disturbed. The organization of the Democratic party 
is hostile to the system of protection. Its measures, therefore, 
awaken apprehensions, disturb business, put capital in peril, and 
diminish the opportunities for labor. Nearly three thousand million 
dollars are embarked in manufactures. About two and three-fourths 
million operatives are employed at an annual aggregate sum in wages 
of nearly one thousand million dollars. These vast interests of labor 
and capital cannot be touched by a hostile hand without disturbing 
every other interest, nor without affecting unfavorably every branch 
of industry. 

While it would not be just to say that the members of the Repub- 
lican party are agreed in support of what is known as the system of 
Civil Service Reform, it is just to claim that there is a very general 
opinion in the party that there shall be a full and fair trial of the 
undertaking, and that at the end the results shall be accepted as the 
basis of a public policy. For the Democratic party no corresponding 
claim can be made. If its history be considered in connection with 
the declarations of leading Democrats, and the neglect of the national 
organization to commit itself to the new policy, it is reasonable to 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 103 

assume that the existing law would either be repealed or its purpose 
would be avoided in administration should the Democratic party 
attain power in the country. 

But these issues, one and all, are insignificant when compared or 
contrasted with the issue raised by the systematic and continuous 
suppression of the votes of half a million citizens in the States of 
the South. The fact of such suppression is proved conclusively and 
often it is admitted by those who profit by the proceeding. The 
records of Congress in regard to the conduct of elections in Louis- 
iana, Mississippi, and South Carolina so sustain the allegation that 
the justice of the charge is outside of the region of controversy. 
For excuse and defense it is pleaded that it is impossible to live 
under negro government. If this plea be allowed as matter for justi- 
fication or defense, then it follows that the minority may usurp the 
government of a State or of the United States whenever the rule of 
the majority is disagreeable or burdensome. The rule of the major- 
ity, when its authority is both derived and exercised by constitutional 
processes, is the law of our political life. If the rule of the majority 
may be overturned whenever the minority is dissatisfied, the govern- 
ment ceases to be a government of laws and becomes a government 
of men. If a minority may dispossess the majority, then a minority 
of the usurping minority may seize power, and the process may go 
on until a single person becomes supreme and absolute. It is thus 
that the government of an usurping minority runs rapidly into 
despotic sway. 

The vital element of Republican institutions is in the right and the 
recognition of the right of every citizen, who is duly qualified to 
vote, to have his vote counted, and in the consequent proposition 
that the government, as constituted by the majority vote, shall be 
recognized and obeyed. In the States of the South the right to vote 
has, in some instances, been denied; in other cases the votes cast 
have either not been counted or they have been counted for candi- 
dates of the opposite party; and in other cases the legally constituted 
governments have been overthrown by force, or abandoned through 
fear of force. 

In 1875, the government of Mississippi was seized by force, whose 
incidents were murder and other brutal crimes. 

In 1877, South Carolina and Louisiana were seized by the repre- 
sentatives of the minority party. 

In all these States the Democratic party enjoyed the benefits of the 
political and personal crimes committed ; and in all these States the 



104 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

rule of the Democratic party has been perpetuated, sometimes by- 
force and sometimes by fraud. These proceedings were planned 
and executed systematically, and their results have been accepted 
by the Democratic party of the States concerned, and by the Demo- 
cratic party as a national organization. 

By these usurpations in the States of the South the Democrats not 
only wrested power from the lawful majority in those States, but they 
also secured a majority in the United States Senate for t* time, and 
in the House of Representatives they have been able to command a 
majority in four Congresses. The Presidential elections of 1876 
and 1880 were in peril from the same cause, and if now there could 
be free elections and an honest count and return of the votes cast 
in the eleven States that were engaged in the Rebellion, the pending 
contest would be without excitement as the result would be free 
from doubt. 

By these usurpations the Democratic party has secured political 
advantages such as it did not enjoy even in the days of slavery. 
The former slaves are counted according to their number in the 
basis of representation, while under the old constitution each class 
of five was estimated as equal to three free persons. Upon the pres- 
ent basis, the South gains more than thirty representatives in Congress 
and an equal number of votes in the electoral colleges. In several of 
the States of the South the use of force, culminating in a reign of 
terror, has suppressed the negro vote and left the old slave masters 
and their adherents in full and undisputed possession of political 
power. Fraudulent practices at the voting places and the falsifica- 
tion of returns, are now for the most part adequate means for the per- 
petuation of the mastery first gained by force. 

By these usurpations the negro race of the South and many white 
persons, not of the Democratic party, are deprived of the privileges 
and immunities to which they are entitled by the Constitution of the 
United States. 

But this statement does not measure nor even indicate the magni- 
tude of the evil. In a Republic there can be no baser political 
crime than a usurpation by which millions of men are robbed of their 
rightful share in the government. 

By these usurpations, States have been seized by a minority and 
held through fear and force, both Houses of Congress have been 
captured and the executive department has been put in peril. If the 
elections in the old Slaves States were free, and the returns were 
honest, the Republican party could command so large a majority 



THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 105 

that the election of its candidates would be conceded from the day 
of their nomination. In the presence of this usurpation the votes 
of two Democrats in South Carolina have as much weight in the 
government as is given to the votes of five citizens of New York or 
Illinois. And never until the elections are full, free, and honest in 
the States of the South can the voters in the North enjoy an equality 
of power in the government of the country. 

Thus does it appear that the voters of the North have an equal 
interest with the disfranchised citizens of the South in the restora- 
tion of those citizens to the enjoyment of their constitutional rights. 

The reestablishment of the Union implied the restoration of the 
States, recently in rebellion, to their full right of representation in 
the Congress of the United States. This was done, but there have 
been moments when many citizens of the North, compelled, as they 
have been compelled, to witness the outrages perpetrated by the 
remnant of the old slave-holding class upon the enfranchised blacks, 
to doubt the wisdom of the reconstruction policy. 

The reestablishment of the Union was a necessity, and when the 
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified it was assumed 
by the old Free States that security was taken for ultimate justice 
and permanent peace. That result has not been attained. The 
South has enjoyed the right of representation, in the fullest measure, 
and at the same time by force, fraud, and intimidation, a third of its 
inhabitants have been excluded from all part in the government of 
the country. 

If this injustice and wrong were to continue, if there were neither 
remedy nor redress for this gross violation of personal and public 
rights, then, indeed, the reestablishment of the Union could be 
regarded only as a mistake. 

The acts of injustice and wrong of which the country now com- 
plains were first perpetrated upon a scale sufficiently large to attract 
public attention about the year 1870, and as yet no effectual remedy 
has been applied. This condition of things ought not longer to con- 
tinue. If reformation does not come speedily from the States them- 
selves there should be an exercise of power from without. As the 
Democratic party is benefited by the existing condition of things, 
there is no ground to anticipate any action by that party that shall 
tend to the restoration of the franchise to the negro population. 
Indeed, the success of the Democratic party in the pending election, 
would perpetuate the wrong for a period of four years at least. 



106 THE QUESTIONS AT ISSUE IN THE PENDING CONTEST. 

But the nation can not be a silent and indifferent witness of the 
flight from their homes of thousands of citizens escaping from law- 
less oppression, and seeking refuge in the States that recognize the 
equal rights of men. The nation cannot be a silent and indifferent 
witness of the consequent disturbance of labor, and the injury 
wrought by the unnatural competition among laborers in one section 
of the Union, and the coincident dearth of laborers in another section, 
and all because the laborer is the subject of personal and political 
injustice. Nor can the nation remain silent and indifferent, when 
by fraud and force a section recently in arms, seizes, first, the 
government of States and then by the same means attempts the 
conquest of the Government of the United States. The remedy is 
with the Republican party; and if that party is again put in posses- 
sion of the government, in all its branches, every constitutional 
power should be sought out, organized and made effective for the 
protection of the citizen against the systematized scheme of the 
South to destroy the equality of men and the equality of States.- 

If there could be a free vote and an honest count in the States of 
the South there would be no occasion for the Republican party to 
contest for New York or Indiana, except to secure a wholesome pub- 
lic policy in those States. Whatever of peril now menaces the civil 
service, the financial system, the industries and business of the 
country is due to the fact of a solid South. 

A solid South means the rule absolute of a minority in several of 
the old Slave States, with the possibility of like absolute rule over 
the whole country. If the solidity of the South is not broken from 
within, and that speedily, it must be shattered from without. It 
will not be broken by divisions in the Democratic party either North 
or South. 

A policy of waiting, of confidence, of negations, of blindness, 
will prove fatal in the end. The Republican party should declare its 
purpose, should frame the issue, should boldly stake everything it 
has or may have of fortune or power upon the effort to redeem its 
supporters and allies in the South from the domination of a minoritj-. 

In this campaign this one question is the paramount question to 
which every other is subordinate or incident. The rule of the 
minority must be destroyed or the Republican idea will disappear in 
the South, or the downtrodden will rise in arms against their oppres- 
sors and involve the States concerned in civil strife. Justice and 
peace alike demand the assertion of the doctrine of equality of rights 
in the States of the South. 



i 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE INFLUENCE OP THE UNITED STATES IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE 
WORLD DUE TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY 
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

When the Constitution was adopted, and during the first twenty- 
years of our national existence, our standing was not affected seri- 
ously by the circumstance that slavery was recognized and protected 
in the organic law. The discussions in regard to the emancipation of - 
the slaves in the British islands upon our coast, aroused attention to 
and provoked criticism upon the inconsistency of our system. 

The friends of Republican institutions were ashamed to cite the 
United States as an example, and citizens resident or sojourning in 
Europe were compelled to preserve a humiliating silence when the 
character of their country was the subject of conversation or debate. 

In countries where slavery did not exist the system had but few 
defenders, and none of the defenders of the system, wherever found, 
were friends to republican institutions. 

For seventy years our example as a nation was calculated to bring 
the system of popular government into discredit. The theory of the 
government and the practice under it were inconsistent. 

The ruling classes in Europe were hostile to our system for the 
reason that it threatened the overthrow of dynastic institutions. The 
existence of slavery tended to alienate the masses. In that condition 
of public sentiment it was always possible for the governments of 
Europe to command a popular support in any controversy that 
might arise with the United States. 

Our peril during the first eighteen months of the Rebellion was 
due to that cause ; but when the emancipation of the slaves was pro- 
claimed it was no longer possible for the government of England or 
France to command a popular majority in any undertaking prejudi- 
cial to the United States. The fear and the danger of foreign inter- 
vention then disappeared. 

(107) 



108 INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD. 

When the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified our institutions 
became republican, and a harmony was established between our 
theories and our practice which silenced criticism and enabled our 
friends and the friends of freedom everywhere to cite our example as 
a model for imitation. 

Our protective system has been, it now is, and for a long time to 
come it will continue to be, a disturbing influence in the policies of 
European States. 

Aside from the spirit of conquest in barbarous and semi-barbarous 
tribes and nations, and the fury of religious zeal in more advanced 
peoples and communities, the controlling inducements which lead 
men to migrate from one country to another are preferences for insti- 
tutions, civil and political, and hopes for a higher condition of 
domestic and social life. These hopes include the prospect of wealth 
or competency as the means by which a higher condition of domestic 
and social life is to be secured. The more ignorant classes of 
society are moved by the single consideration of their physicarcon- 
ditions. Others, more advanced in knowledge and more considerate 
as to probable advantages for themselves and their families and 
descendants, even for a distant and unknown future, will estimate 
the quality of the institutions and the nature of the government of 
the country to which they propose to migrate. In the nature of 
things this latter class must constitute a body of good citizens. 

The abolition of slavery, the protective system by which the 
wages of labor have been advanced, and the homestead laws by 
which direct encouragement has been given to agricultural industry, 
have led tens of thousands of intelligent men to forsake their homes 
in Germany and the Scandinavian nations and to become citizens 
of the United States. 

Their presence is a source of wealth and an element of power. 
Having chosen this country as their home, and upon high ideas of its 
character and destiny, they will aid in the realization of those ideas. 
Nor is there occasion for apprehension in the minds of any that the 
population of the country is approaching its capacity to furnish 
employment and subsistence. 

If the inhabitants of all the States and Territories of this Union 
were transferred to the State of Texas, the number of persons to the 
square mile would be one hundred and ninety-one. Rhode Island 
now maintains a population of two hundred and fifty-four, and 



INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD. 109 

Massachusetts a population of two hundred and twenty-one to the 
square mile. 

The migration of masses of men from the States of Europe dimin- 
ishes the supply of laborers and tends to raise the wages of those 
who remain. 

This advance in wages increases the cost of manufactures and 
the prices of agricultural products, and all to the advantage of the 
United States. 

As European manufactures increase in cost our ability to compete 
with them in the markets of the world improves, and the opportuni- 
ties for export to the United States diminish. The advance in the 
price of agricultural products gives a better market for our surplus, 
and adds relatively to the profits of agriculture. 

The larger part of the male emigrants are of the military age, and 
their expatriation may in the end cripple the power of Germany for 
military operations. The time is not far distant, probably, when 
that government will enter upon a policy of discouragement to 
emigration. Cheap lands and high wages in America have raised 
the wages of labor in England and on the Continent. 

The tendency, and in a large degree the effect, of the measures of 
the Republican party has been to reduce the value of money in 
America to its value in Europe, and to advance the wages of labor in 
Europe to the rate of wages realized in America. 

These movements foreshow the near approach of the day when we 
shall be able to compete with European countries in every branch of 
industry for which we have equal natural advantages. 

At the close of the war our military power was established and our 
military capacity was recognized by every nation of the globe. This 
not alone from the conduct and success of the armies of the North ; 
the skill, courage, and endurance of the armies of the South com- 
manded almost equal respect. 

The reunion of forces that had carried on gigantic, hostile contests 
for four years was accepted as an assurance that the armies of the 
Kepublic were adequate to every exigency that could arise in the life of 
a nation. 

As a consequence we are now in a situation so fortunate that we 
are at once the wonder and the envy of other nations, and for our- 
selves we are relieved of all apprehensions as to the conduct of for- 
eign governments in their relations to us. As long as we grant what 
is just and without debate, and claim only what is our proper due, 



110 INFLUENCE OP THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD. 

there will be no occasion for controversy. Moreover, we have shown 
our disposition to submit matters of doubt to the arbitration of peace, 
rather than to the arbitrament of war. 

At the close of the war our debt, in proportion to our population, 
was equal to the debts of the most heavily burdened nations of 
Europe. In less than twenty years that debt has been so reduced 
that its too speedy liquidation threatens the derangement of the 
finances and business of the country. 

This result is due to the public prosperity as it has been promoted 
by the measures of the Republican party. At any time between 
1840 and 1880 a debt of one thousand or even five hundred million 
dollars would have destroyed the credit of the country. The lesson 
taught by our experience is that the weight of a public debt is not to be 
estimated by its magnitude as reported in dollars, but rather by the 
condition of the people on whom the burden is laid. It is also to be 
observed that the ability of a people to pay taxes can not be meas- 
ured by the natural resources which they possess. The endowments 
granted by nature yield little or nothing until the interest of the pos- 
sessor is awakened and there is an application of intelligent labor to 
the development of those resources. 

The United States were as rich in the gifts of nature in 1850 as in 
1880, and yet the results were not half as great. 

The abolition of slavery, the homestead laws, the system of pro- 
tection to labor in America* have encouraged migration, and at the 
same time so developed the resources and added to the prosperity of 
the country that our example commands attention in the States of 
Europe, in India, in China, and in Japan. 

Under the old form of government the institution of slavery, 
recognized as it was in the Constitution, and justified or tolerated by 
a majority of American citizens, was everywhere a hindrance to the 
progress of republican ideas and an obstacle to the emigration of the 
more intelligent classes of European society. 

America is now open to European capital and skill, and Europe is 
open to American ideas in all that concerns the structure and admin- 
istration of government. 

Thus is America becoming more and more powerful, and thus is 
Europe tending to republicanism. 

These twenty years of Republican rule have been sufficient to 
extort from the "London Times," that was never our friend, this 
tribute to our character, position, and destiny: 



INFLUENCE OP THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD. Ill 

"The Unique Position of the United States.— As yet the 
North American republic stands alone. With the conscious power 
to carve its own destinies belonging to perfect national independence, 
it combines the Roman peace enjoyed privately and commercially by 
subject provinces of the ancient Roman empire. No country in the 
world has any interest in molesting it. None would dare gratuitously 
to offer it an affront or do it an injustice. Its standing army is the 
minutest in existence, and Gen. Sherman, who would like it enlarged, 
did not desire that it should be more than minute. Except for the 
fear of wild Indians or native desperadoes, it might disband the 
whole to-morrow and be perfectly secure. Its citizens are free to 
play with politics or to abstain at discretion. Their happy fortune 
has left it for the time with no more difficult problem to settle than 
how to avoid accumulating so enormous a reserve of public wealth 
as not to know what to do with its taxes. Favorable geographical 
circumstances must be thanked in part for its immunity from many 
national burdens and national alarms. Unquiet and strong neighbors 
compel precautions generally. The United States cannot be said to 
have more than two real neighbors, one too weak to be harmful ; the 
other, which is great enough, possessed by the most ardent determi- 
nation never to be otherwise than friendly. If even its neighbors 
had been among the most aggressive, its territory and its population 
make a solid mass which would have insured it against attack. " 



If the statements of facts as set forth in these pages are received as 
truthful, and the arguments based thereon are accepted as trust- 
worthy, two important conclusions must be accepted also: That 
the Democratic party is not a safe custodian of political power, and 
that the administration of the government for nearly a quarter of a 
century by the Republican party is without a precedent in our history 
for its wisdom, its patriotism, and for the degree of success that 
has crowned its undertakings. Indeed, the Republican party may 
safely challenge all nations, all times, and all history, for a parallel 
of its successes. 

When it entered upon the administration of the government the 
Union was broken in fact, though not in. law, by the treasonable 
doings of one wing of the Democratic party. Of the other wing of 
that party one portion accepted the result as an accomplished fact. 
Consequently, the Republican party was the basis of the force, 
whether political or military, by which the contest was prosecuted 



112 INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE WORLD. 

for the reestablishment of the government over all the territory that 
had been embraced in the Union previous to the passage of the ordi* 
nances of secession. 

If Mr. Buchanan had asserted the right of the Union to maintain 
its existence, and had he summoned the country to the support of 
that position, it is not only probable but certain that the scheme for 
the secession of States would have been arrested previous to the 
secession of Virginia. Buchanan's position was an assurance that 
States might secede without incurring the peril of war. 

The intelligent men of the South lost all hope of success when 
they were convinced that the resources and powers of the North 
would be devoted to the overthrow of the Confederacy, unless at 
times they may have indulged the delusion that the Democratic 
party would obtain control of the government. 

Upon this view it was that Alexander H. Stevens came to the con- 
clusion, in 1862, that the cause of the Confederacy was hopeless. 

A party is responsible for its policy and for the conduct of its 
leaders, and this assuredly, unless the earliest and an early oppor- 
tunity be taken to repudiate leaders and policy. The Democratic 
party of the North accepted Mr. Buchanan's position, and their 
platform of 1864 was in substance a recognition of that position. 

If the Democratic party now maintain that in 1860, the general 
government, under the Constitution, had no right to coerce a State 
or the people of a State to remain in the Union, then their view of 
the relations of States to the general government has been over- 
ruled by the country, by the executive and legislative branches of 
the government and by the courts. If the party does not now so 
claim, it confesses that the position of Mr. Buchanan in 1860, and of 
the Chicago Convention in 1864, was an error in law and conse- 
quently an unwise position in fact. 

Admitting, what is true, that the Democratic party is now free 
from any element of secession, and certainly free of any purpose to 
encourage the doctrine of secession, it is yet true that the party is 
composed largely, both North and South, of the men who are re- 
sponsible for the grave errors of the dark years of 1860 to 1865. 
Those errors may not be repeated, but a party whose principles, opin- 
ions, and traditions, culminated in such fatal consequences of treason 
and blood, is not a safe depository of political power. The possi- 
bility of error remains, and wrong principles in regard to govern- 
ment are sure to yield unwise or dangerous policies in administra- 
tion. 



T- 



SNFLUENCE OF TIIE UNITE© STATES ON THE WORLD. 113 

Not less gross have been the errors of the Democratic party upon 
the subject of protection to the industries of the country. From 
1840 to 1860 it advocated a free-trade policy or a tariff for revenue 
only. During that period our manufactures struggled against ad- 
verse influences, and the country enjoyed only a limited degree of 
prosperity. And even now, in the presence of the results secured 
through a system of protection, the Democratic party is divided in 
opinion and destitute of a definite policy. The policy of the Repub- 
lican party is clearly set forth in the platform of 1884. 

It is declared also, in the platform, that the Republican party will 
use the power with which it may be entrusted to secure for the citi- 
zens of the South their just rights under the Constitution. 

A party is to be judged by the application of one or both of two 
tests. Either by its history, by what it has done, or by its pledges 
for the future. Of the Republican party it can be asserted truth- 
fully that it has kept the pledges which it has heretofore made, and 
that in the keeping of those pledges the safety and prosperity of the 
eountry have been secured. The country may therefore wisely trust 
in the pledges now made. 

8 






ADDRESSES, PLATFORMS, ETC. 



ABKAHAM LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL., 
June 17, 1858. 

Gentlemen op the Convention: 
TF we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, 
-*■ we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We 
are now far on into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the 
avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery 
agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation had not 
only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it 
will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A 
house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this Govern- 
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not 
expect the Union to be dissolved, — I do not expect the house to fall ; 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
the farther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest 
in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advo- 
cates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, — old as well as new, North as well as South. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condition? Let any one who 
doubts carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combi- 
nation, — piece of machinery, so to speak, — compounded of the 
Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott Decision. Let him consider, 
not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well 
adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and 
trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace, the evidences of 
design and concert of action among its chief master-workers from 
the beginning. 

But so far Congress only had acted; and an indorsement by the 
people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point alreadv 

(114) 



- 



LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 115 

gained, and give chance for more. The New Year of 1854 found 
slavery excluded from more than half the States by State constitu- 
tions, and from most of the national territory by congressional 
prohibition. Four days later commenced the struggle which ended 
in repealing that congressional prohibition. This opened all the 
national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained. 

This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been provided 
for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of "squatter sov- 
ereignty " otherwise called "sacred right of self-government;" which 
latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any 
government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount 
to just this : that, if any one man choose to enslave another, no third 
man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incorporated 
into the Nebraska Bill itself, in the language which follows: "It 
being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery 
into any Territory or State, nor exclude it therefrom, but to leave 
the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States." 

Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "squatter 
sovereignty" and "sacred right of self-government." 

"But," said opposition members, " let us be more specific, — let us 
amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the Terri- 
tory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the 
measure ; and down they voted the amendment. 

While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a law-case 
involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner 
having voluntarily taken him first into a Free State, and then a 
Territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as 
a slave, — for a long time in each, — was passing through the United 
States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both the 
Nebraska Bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same 
month of May, 1854. The negro's name was Dred Scott, which 
name now designates the decision finally made in the case. 

Before the then next Presidential election, the law-case came to, 
and was argued in, the Supreme Court of the United States ; but the 
decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the 
election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the 
leading advocate of the Nebraska Bill to state his opinion whether a 
people of a Territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their 



116 Lincoln's speech at springfield, ill. 

limits; and the latter answers, "That is a question for the Supreme 
Court." 

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorse- 
ment, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. 
The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by 
nearly four hundred thousand votes ; and so, perhaps, was not over- 
whelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in 
his last annual Message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon 
the people the weight and authority of the indorsement. 

The Supreme Court met again; did not announce their decision, 
but ordered a re-argument. The Presidential inauguration came, 
and still no decision of the court; but the incoming President, in his 
inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the 
forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, 
came the decision. 

This was the third point gained. 

The reputed author of the Nebraska Bill finds an early occasion 
to make a speech at this Capitol indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, 
and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new President, 
too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and 
strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment 
that any different view had ever been entertained. At length a 
squabble springs up between the President and the author of the 
Nebraska Bill, on the mere question of fact whether the Lecompton 
Constitution was, or was not, in any just sense, made by the people 
of Kansas; and, in that squabble, the latter declares that all he 
wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether 
slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his decla- 
ration, that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, 
to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy 
he would impress upon the public mind, — the principle for which he 
declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end. 

And well may he cling to that principle! If he has any parental 
feeling, well may he cling to it! That principle is the only shred left 
of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott Decision, 
squatter sovereignty squatted out of existence, — tumbled down like 
temporary scaffolding ; like the mould at the foundry, served through 
one blast, and fell back into loose sand; helped to carry an election, 
and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the 
Republicans against the Lecompton Constitution involves nothing of 



LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 117 

the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point 
— the right of a people to make their own constitution — upon which 
he and the Republicans have never differed. 

The several points of the Dred Scott Decision, in connection with 
Senator Douglas's " care-not " policy, constitute the piece of machin- 
ery in its present state of advancement. The working-points of that 
machinery are : 

First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no 
descendant of such, can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense 
of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. 

This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible 
event, of the benefit of this provision of the United States Constitu- 
tion which declares that " The citizens of each State shall be entitled 
to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States." 

Secondly, That, "subject to the Constitution of the United 
States," neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude 
slavery from any United States Territory. 

This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the 
Territories With slaves, without danger of losing them as property, 
and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institution 
through all the future. 

Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a 
Free State makes him free, as against the holder, the United States 
courts will not decide, but will leave it to be decided by the courts 
of any Slave State the negro may be forced into by the master. 

This point is made, not to be pressed immediately ; but if acqui- 
esced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an 
election, then to sustain the logical conclusion, that, what Dred 
Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott in the Free State 
of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one 
or one thousand slaves in Illinois, or in any other Free State. 

Auxiliary to all .this, and working hand in hand with it, the 
Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould 
public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether 
slavery is voted down or voted up. 

This shows exactly where we now are, and partially, also, whither 
we are tending. 

It will throw additional light on the latter to go back and run the 
mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several 
things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when 



118 LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 

they were transpiring. The people were to be left "perfectly free," 
" subject only to the Constitution." What the Constitution had to 
do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it 
was an exactly fitted niche for the Dred Scott Decision afterward to 
come in, and declare that perfect freedom of the people to be just no 
freedom at all. 

Why was the amendment expressly declaring the right of the 
people to exclude slavery voted down? Plainly enough now; the 
adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott 
Decision. 

Why was the court decision held up? Why even a senator's 
individual opinion withheld till after the Presidential election? 
Plainly enough now; the speaking out then would have damaged 
the "perfectly free" argument upon which the election was to be 
carried. 

Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement? 
Why the delay of a re-argument? Why the incoming President's 
advance exhortation in favor of the decision? These things look like 
the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to 
mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. 
And why the hasty after-indorsements of the decision by the Presi- 
dent and others ? 

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the 
result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, 
different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different 
times and places, and by different workmen, — Stephen, Franklin, 
Roger, and James, for instance, — and when we see these timbers 
joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a 
mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths 
and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their 
respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, — not omitting 
even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the 
place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece 
in, — in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen, 
and Franklin, and Roger, and James all understood one another from 
the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn 
up before the first blow was struck. 

It should not be overlooked, that, by the Nebraska Bill, the people 
of a State as well as Territory were to be left "perfectly free," "sub- 
ject only to the Constitution." Why mention a State? They were 



LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 119 

legislating for Territories, and not for or about States. Certainly the 
people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of 
the United States ; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely 
territorial law? Why are the people of a Territory and the people 
of a State therein lumped together, and their relation to the Consti- 
tution therein treated as being precisely the same? 

While the opinion of the court by Chief Justice Taney, in the 
Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring 
judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States 
neither permits Congress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude 
slavery from any United States Territory, they all omit to declare 
whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people 
of a State, to exclude it. Possibly, this was a mere omission; but 
who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into 
the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State 
to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought 
to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a Territory, into 
the Nebraska Bill, — I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not 
have been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other? 

The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a 
State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more 
than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language too, of 
the Nebraska Act. On one occasion his exact language is, " Except 
in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the 
United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of 
slavery within its jurisdiction." 

In what cases the power of the State is so restrained by the United 
States Constitution is left an open question, precisely as the samo 
question, as to the restraint on the power of the Territories, was left 
open in the Nebraska Act. Put that and that together, and we have 
another nice little niche, which we may ere long see filled with another 
Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United 
States does not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. 
And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of "care not 
whether slavery be voted down or voted up " shall gain upon the 
public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be 
maintained when made. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful 
in all the States. Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is probably 
coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present 



120 LINCOLN'S SPEEOH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 

political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall lie down 
pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of 
making their State free ; and we shall awake to the reality, instead, 
that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a Slave State. 

To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is the work now 
before all those who would prevent that consummation. That is 
what we have to do. But how can we best do it? 

There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, 
and yet whisper softly, that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument 
there is with which to effect that object. They do not tell us, nor 
has he told us, that he wishes any such object to be effected. They 
wish us to infer all, from the facts that he now has a little quarrel 
with the present. head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly 
voted with us, on a single point, upon which he and we have never 
differed. 

They remind us that he is a very great man, and that the largest of 
us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But "a living dog is 
better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this 
work, is at least a aaged and toothless one. How can he oppose the 
advances of slavery? He don't care any thing about it. His avowed 
mission is impressing the "public heart" to care nothing about it. 

A leading Douglas Democrat newspaper thinks Douglas's superior 
talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave-trade. 
Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? 
He has not said so. Does he really think so? But, if it is, how can 
he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of 
white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can he 
possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they 
can be bought cheapest? And unquestionably they can be bought 
cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. 

He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of 
slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he 
oppose the foreign slave-trade, — how can he refuse that trade in that 
"property" shall be "perfectly free," — unless he does it as a pro- 
tection to the home production? And, as the home producers will 
probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground 
of opposition. 

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be 
wiser to-day than he was yesterday ; that he may rightfully change 
when he finds himself wrong. But can we for that reason run 






LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 121 

ahead, and. infer that he will make any particular change, of which 
he himself has given no intimation? Can we safely base our action 
upon any such vague inferences ? 

Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's position, 
question his motives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to 
him. "Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together, on principle, 
so that our great cause may have assistance from his great ability, I 
hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. 

But clearly he is not now with us ; he does not pretend to be ; he 
does not promise ever to be. Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, 
and conducted by, its own undoubted friends, — those whose hands 
are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do care for the result. 

Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thir- 
teen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse 
of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance 
against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we 
gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle 
through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and 
pampered enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now ? — now, when 
that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? 

The result is not doubtful. "We shall not fail, — if we stand firm, 
we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it; 
but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. 



122 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

March 4, 1861. 

Fellow-Citizens of the United States : In compliance with a custom 
as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you 
briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Con- 
stitution of the United States to be taken by the President "before 
he enters on the execution of his office. " 

I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those 
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or 
excitement. 

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern 
States that by the accession of a Republican administration their 
property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. 
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all 
the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but 
quote from one of those speeches when I declare that r ' I have no 
purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the States where it exists. I belieye I have no lawful right 
to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. ,f \ Those who nominated 
and elected me, did so with full knowledge that I had made this and 
many similar declarations, and have never recanted them. And more 
than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a 
law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which 
I now read : 

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the 
States, and especially the right of each State to order and control 
its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively, is essential to the balance of power on which the perfection 
and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Terri- 
tory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 

I now reiterate these sentiments ; and, in doing so, I only press 
upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the 
case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no sec- 
tion are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming adminis- 
tration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the 
Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to 



LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 123 

all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as 
cheerfully to one section as to another. 

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives 
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written 
in the Constitution as any other of its provisions : 

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or 
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due." 

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those 
who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves ; and 
the intention of the law-giver is the law. All members of Congress 
swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as 
much as any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves, whose 
cases come within the terms of this clause, "shall be delivered up," 
their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort 
in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame 
and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous 
oath? 

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be 
enforced by national or by State authority ; but surely that difference 
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can 
be of but little consequence to him, or to others, by which authority 
it is to be done. And should any one, in any case, be content that 
his oath shall go unkept, on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to 
how it shall be kept? 

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards 
of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be intro- 
duced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? 
And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the 
enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that 
"the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and im- 
munities of citizens in the several States?" 

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with 
no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical 
rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of 
Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much 
safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and 
abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any 



124 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be uncon- 
stitutional. 

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President 
under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different 
and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, administered 
Khe executive branch of the Government. . They have conducted it 
through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with 
all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the 
brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar 
difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only 
menaced, is now formally attempted. 

I hold that, in contemplation of universal law, and of the Consti- 
tution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, 
if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. 
It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in 
its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the 
express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever — it being impossible to destroy it, except by some 
action not provided for in the instrument itself. 

Again, if the United States be not a Government proper, but an 
association of States in the nature of the contract merely, can it, as a 
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made 
it? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but 
does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition 
that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the 
history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Con- 
stitution. It was formed in fact by the Articles of Association in 
1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then 
thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be per- 
petual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 
1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the 
Constitution was " to form a more perfect union." 

But if destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part only, of the 
States, be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before, the 
Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

It follows, from these views, that no State, upon its own mere 
notion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances 
to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any 



LINCOLN'S INAUGUBAL ADDRESS. 125 

State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insur- 
rectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, 
the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take 
care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the 
laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing 
this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; and I shall perform 
it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American 
people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative 
manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a 
menace, but only as a declared purpose of the Union that it will con- 
stitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and there 
shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The 
power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the 
property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the 
duties and imposts; but, beyond what maybe necessary for these 
objects, there will be no invasion; no using of force against or among 
the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any 
interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent compe- 
tent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be 
no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that 
object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to 
enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so 
irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better 
to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all 
parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall 
have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm 
thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed, 
unless current events and experience shall show a modification or 
change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discre- 
tion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing, 
and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. 

That there are persons in one section or another who seek to de- 
stroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, 
I will neither affirm nor deny ; but if there be such I need address 
no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, 
may I not speak? 



126 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our 
national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, 
would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you 
hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any por- 
tion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while 
the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly 
from — will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ? 

All profess to be content in the Union, if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written 
in the Constitution, has been denied? I think not. Happily, the 
human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity 
of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a 
plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. 
If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a mi- 
nority of any clearly- written constitutional right, it might, in a moral 
point of view, justify revolution — certainly would if such right were 
a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of mi- 
norities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirma- 
tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitution, 
that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law 
can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every 
question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight 
can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain express 
provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be 
surrendered by National or by State authority? The Constitution 
does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Terri- 
tories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress 
protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not ex- 
pressly say. 

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional contro- 
versies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If 
the minority will not acquiesce the majority must, or the Government 
must cease. There is no other alternative; for continuing the 
Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority 
in such case will secede rather than acquiesce they make a precedent 
which, in turn, will divide and ruin them; for a minority of then- 
own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be con- 
trolled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of 
a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, 
precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from 






LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 127 

it? All who. cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to 
the exact temper of doing this. 

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to 
compose a new union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent re- 
newed secession? 

Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A 
majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, 
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opin- 
ions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. 
Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. 
Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent 
arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority 
principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. 

I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional 
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court ; nor do I deny 
that such decision must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to 
a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to 
very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other 
departments 6i the Government. And while it is obviously possible 
that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil 
effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the 
chance that it may be overruled, and never become a precedent for 
other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different 
practice. At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if 
the policy of the Government upon vital questions, affecting the 
whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decision of the Supreme 
Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between par- 
ties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own 
rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government 
into the hands of that eminent tribunal. 

Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. 
It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly 
brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to 
turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country 
believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other 
believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only 
substantial dispute. The fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, 
and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each 
as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community 
where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law 



128 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation 
in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot 
be perfectly cured ; and it would be worse in both cases after the 
separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now 
imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restric- 
tion in one section; while fugitive slaves, now only partially sur- 
rendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our 
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall 
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out 
of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different 
parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face 
to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue 
between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more 
advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before ? Cam 
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties 
be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among 
friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and 
when after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease 
fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are 
again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who 
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Gov- 
ernment, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, 
or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot 
be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are 
desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I 
make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the 
rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exer- 
cised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I 
should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair 
opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture 
to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it 
allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead 
of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by 
others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not 
be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refused I 
understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution — which 
amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the 
effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the 



LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 129 

domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to 
service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart 
from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to 
say that, holding such a provision now to be implied constitutional 
law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. 

The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and 
they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of 
the States. The people themselves can also do this if they choose; 
but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is 
to administer the present Government, as it came to his hands, and to 
transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. 

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate jus- 
tice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? 
In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the 
right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and 
justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that 
truth and that justice will surely prevail, by the judgment of this 
great tribunal of the American people. 

By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same 
people have wisely given their public servants but little power for 
mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of 
that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the 
people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any 
extreme of weakness or folly, can very seriously injure the Govern- 
ment in the short space of four years. 

My countrymen, and all, think calmly and well upon this whole 
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be 
an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would 
never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; 
but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now 
dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the 
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it ; while the 
new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to 
change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied 
hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason 
for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and 
a firm reliance in Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present 
difficulty. 

In your hands, jny dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, 
9 



130 LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail 
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the 
Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, 
protect, and defend it." 

I am loath to close. "We are not enemies, hut friends. We must 
not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not 
break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch- 
ing from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and 
hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of 
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better 
angels of our nature. 



PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 131 

PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

September 22, 1862. 

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, 
and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby 
proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be 
prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional 
relation between the United States and each of the States and the 
people thereof, in which States that relation is or may be suspended 
or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again 
recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary 
aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all Slave States, so called, 
the people whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United 
States, and which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment 
of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to col- 
onize persons of African descent, with their consent, upon this conti- 
nent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the 
governments existing there, will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves 
within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of 
the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, 
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do 
no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts 
they may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by 
proclamation, designate the States, and parts of States, if any, in 
which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion 
against the United States ; and the fact that any State, or the people 
thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Con- 
gress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections 
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have 
participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, 
be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people 
thereof, are not in rebellion against the United States, 



132 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled, "An 
Act to make an additional article of war," approved March 3, 1862, 
and which act is in the words and figures following : 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following 
shall be promulgated as an additional article of war, for the govern- 
ment of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and ob- 
served as such : 

" Article — . All officers or persons in the military or naval service 
of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces 
under their respective commands for the purpose of returning fugi- 
tives from service or labor who may have escaped from any persons 
to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due ; and any officer 
who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article 
shall be dismissed from the service. 

" Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall take effect 
from and after its passage." 

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled, " An Act to 
suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and 
confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved 
July 17, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures fol- 
lowing: 

" Sec. 9. And be it furtlier enacted, That all slaves of persons who 
shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion against the Government of the 
United States, or who shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, 
escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the 
army ; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, 
and coming under the control of the Government of the United 
States ; and all slaves of such person found on [or] being within any 
place occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by the forces 
of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be 
forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. 

" Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That no slave escaping into 
any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, from any other 
State, shall be delivered up, or in any way impeded or hindered of 
his liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless 
the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person 
to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is 
his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in 
the present rebellion, nor in any way given aid and comfort thereto; 
and no person engaged in the military or naval service of the United 
States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on the 
validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other 
person, or surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of 
being dismissed from the service." 



PROCLAMATION OP EMANCIPATION. 133 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the 
military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and 
enforce, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sec- 
tions above recited. 

And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of 
the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto through- 
out the rebellion shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional 
relations between the United States and their respective States 
and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) 
be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, including 
the loss of slaves. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this twenty-second day of Sep- 
tember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-two, and of the independence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh. 

By the President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 

January 1, 1863. 

Whereas, On the twenty-second day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation 
was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among 
other things, the following, to wit : 

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves 
within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof 
shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thence- 
forward, and forever, free; and the Executive Government of the 
United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, 
will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do 
no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts 
they may make for their actual freedom. 

' ' That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, 
by proclamation, designate the States, and parts of States, if any, in 
which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion 
against the United States ; and the fact that any State, or the people 
thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress 
of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein 
a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have partici- 
pated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony be 



134 PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 

deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, 
are not then in rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed 
rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, 
and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, 
do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so 
to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days 
from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States, 
and parts of States, wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this 
day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit : 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, 
Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, 
Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Or- 
leans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, 
Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia 
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also 
the counties of Berkeley, Acomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, 
York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk 
and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left 
precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do 
order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated 
States, and parts oi* States, are, and henceforward shall be, free ; and 
that the Executive Government of the United States, including the 
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain 
the freedom of such persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to ab- 
stain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recom- 
mend to them that in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully 
for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suit- 
able condition, will be received into the armed service of the United 
States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to 
man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act,* sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the 



LINCOLN'S ORATION AT GETTYSBURG. 135 

considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty- 
God. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and sixty-three, and 
of the independence of the United States of America the eighty, 
seventh. 

By the President, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

"William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ORATION AT GETTYSBURG. 

November 19, 1863. 

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this 
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the 
proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that na- 
tion, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedi- 
cate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave 
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 
proper that we should do this. 

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we 
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or 
detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say 
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the liv- 
ing, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have 
thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated 
to the great task remaining before us, — that from these honored dead 
we take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the 
last full measure of devotion, — that we here highly resolve that the 
dead shall not have died in vain, that the nation shall, under God, 
have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 



136 LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

March 4, 1865. 

Fellow- Countrymen : At this second appearing to take the oath of 
the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address 
than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, 
of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the 
expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been 
constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest 
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the 
nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our 
arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the 
public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and 
encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in 
regard to it is ventured. 

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts 
were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it — 
all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being deliv- 
ered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without 
war, insurgent agents were in this city seeking to destroy it without 
war — seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects, by negoti- 
ation. Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them would make 
war rather than let the nation survive ; and the other would accept 
war rather than let it perish. And the war came. 

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not dis- 
tributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part 
of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All 
knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To 
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for 
which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the 
Government claimed no right to do more than restrict territorial en- 
largement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude 
or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated 
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the 
conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and 
a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible 
and prayed to the same God; and each invoked His aid against the 
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just 
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other 



LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 137 

men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The 
prayers of both could not be answered— that of neither has been 
answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. " Woe unto 
the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses 
come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If 
we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those of- 
fenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but 
which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills 
to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible 
war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we dis- 
cern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the 
believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we 
hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war might 
speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the 
wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of 
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ' ' The judg- 
ments of the^ Lord are true and righteous altogether." 

With malice toward none; with charity for all ; with firmness in 
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him 
who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — 
to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace 
among ourselves, and with all nations. 







138 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, ADOPTED AT PHILADELPHIA, 

June 17, 1856. 

This convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call 
addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past 
political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administra- 
tion, to the extension of slavery into Free Territory; in favor of 
admitting Kansas as a Free State, of restoring the action of the Fed- 
eral Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson ; and 
who purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of 
President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows : 

Resolved, That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in 
the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Con- 
stitution, is essential to the preservation of our Republican institu- 
tions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and 
the Union of the States, shall be preserved. 

Resolved, That with our Republican fathers we hold it to be a self- 
evident truth that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary 
object and ulterior design of our Federal Government were, to secure 
these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as 
our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our 
national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of 
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, it becomes our 
duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts 
to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in any Territory 
of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence 
or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a 
territorial legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, 
to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United 
States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained. 

Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign 
power over the Territories of the United States for their government, 
and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the 
imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin 
relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery. 

Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was 
ordained aud established, in order to form a more perfect Union, 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 139 

establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the com- 
mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty, and contains ample provisions for the protection of the 
life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional 
rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently 
taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed 
force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive 
officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sus- 
tained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and 
unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced ; the rights of 
the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed ; test oaths of 
an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed, as a 
condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office ; the 
right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impar- 
tial jury has been denied ; the right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable 
searches and seizures, has been violated ; they have been deprived of 
life, liberty, and property, without due process of law ; that the free- 
dom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to 
choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, 
robberies, and arsons, have been instigated or encouraged, and the 
offenders have been allowed to go unpunished ; that all these things 
have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of 
the present national administration; and that for this high crime 
against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign the 
administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apol- 
ogists, and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the 
country and before the world; and that it is our fixed purpose to 
bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their 
accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter. 

Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State 
of the Union with her present free constitution, as at once the most 
effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights 
and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil 
strife now raging in her territory. 

Resolved, That the highwayman's plea that "might makes right," 
embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of 
American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any 
government or people that gave it their sanction. 



140 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific ocean, by the most central 
and practical route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the 
whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render 
immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary 
thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the fine 
of the railroad. 

Resolved, That appropriations of Congress for the improvement of 
rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the accom- 
modation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by 
the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of government to 
protect the lives and property of its citizens. 

Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and cooperation of the men 
of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support 
of the principles herein declared ; and believing that the spirit of our 
institutions, as well as the constitution of our country, guarantees 
liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, -we 
oppose all proscriptive legislation affecting their security. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, CHICAGO, 

May 17, 1860. 

Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican 

electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in discharge 

of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the 

following declarations : 

1. That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has 
fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and 
perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes which 
called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more 
than ever before, demand its peaceful and constitutional triumph. 

2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the 
Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitu- 
tion, "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed," is essential to the preservation of 
our Republican institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 141 

rights of the States, and the Union of the States, must and shall be 
preserved. 

3. That to the Union of the States this nation owes its unpre- 
cedented increase in population, its surprising development of mate- 
rial resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at 
home and its honor abroad ; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes 
for disunion, come from whatever source they may; and we congrat- 
ulate the country that no Republican member of Congress has 
uttered or countenanced the threats of disunion so often made by 
Democratic members, without rebuke and with applause from their 
political associates; and we denounce those threats of disunion, in 
case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as denying the vital 
principles of a Free Government, and as an avowal of contemplated 
treason, which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people sternly 
to rebuke and forever silence. 

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especially the right of each State to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is 
essential to tnat balance of powers on which the perfection and 
endurance of our. political fabric depends ; and we denounce the law- 
less invasion, by armed force, of the soil of any State or Territory, 
no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 

5. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded 
our worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the 
exactions of a sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate 
exertions to force the infamous Lecompton constitution upon the 
protesting people of Kansas ; in construing the personal relations 
between master and servant to involve an unqualified property in 
persons ; in its attempted enforcement, everywhere, on land and sea, 
through the intervention of Congress and of the federal courts, of 
the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest ; and in its general 
and unvarying abuse of the power entrusted to it by a confiding 
people. 

6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extrava- 
gance which pervades every department of the Federal Government ; 
that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to 
arrest the systematic plunder of the public treasury by favored parti- 
sans; while the recent startling developments of frauds and cor- 
ruptions at the federal metropolis, show that an entire change of 
administration is imperati /ely demanded. 



142 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

7. That the new dogma, that the constitution, of its own force, 
carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, 
is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit provis- 
ions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and 
with legislative and judicial precedent — is revolutionary in its ten- 
dency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. 

8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United 
States is that of freedom ; that as our Republican fathers, when they 
had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that "no 
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law," it becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever such 
legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution 
against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of Con- 
gress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal 
existence to slavery in any territory of the United States. 

9. That we brand the recent re- opening of the African slave trade, 
under the coyer of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial 
power, as a crime against humanity and a burning shame to our 
country and age ; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and 
efficient measures for the total and final suppression of that execra- 
ble traffic. 

10. That in the recent vetoes, by their federal governors, of the acts 
of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting slavery in 
those territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Dem- 
ocratic principles of non-intervention and popular sovereignty, em- 
bodied in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demonstration of the 
deception and fraud involved therein. 

11. That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted as a 
State under the constitution recently formed and adopted by her 
people, and accepted by the House of Representatives. 

12. That, while providing revenue for the support of the General 
Government by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an 
adjustment of these imports as to encourage the development of the 
industrial interest of the whole country; and we commend that 
policy of national exchanges which secures to the working-men lib- 
eral wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics and 
manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enter- 
prise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. 

13. That we protest against any sale or plienation to others of the 
public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of the 



mmmmm 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 143 

homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or suppliants 
for public bounty ; and we demand the passage by Congress of the 
complete and satisfactory homestead measure which has already 
passed the House. 

14. That the Republican party is opposed to any change in our 
naturalization laws, or any State legislation by which the rights of 
citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall 
be abridged or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and efficient 
protection to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or 
naturalized, both at home and abroad. 

15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor improve- 
ments of a national character, required for the accommodation and 
security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution 
and justified by the obligations of government to protect the lives 
and property of its citizens. 

16. That a railroad to the Pacific ocean is imperatively demanded 
by the interest of the whole country; that the Federal Government 
ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction ; and 
that as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail should be promptly 
established. 

17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and 
views, we invite the cooperation of all citizens, however differing on 
other questions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance 
and support. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM, BALTIMORE, 
June 7, 1864. 

Besolved, That it is the highest duty of every American citizen to 
maintain, against all their enemies, the integrity of the Union and 
the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States ; and that, laying aside all differences of political opinions, we 
pledge ourselves, as Union men, animated by a common sentiment 
and aiming at a common object, to do everything in our power 
to aid the Government in quelling, by force of arms, the Rebellion 
now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment 
due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. 

Besolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of 
the United States not to compromise with rebels, nor to offer them 



144 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

any terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an "uncon- 
ditional surrender" of their hostility, and a return to their just 
allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States; and 
that we call upon the Government to maintain this position, and to 
prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the complete 
suppression of the Rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrificing 
patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the Amer- 
ican people to the country and its free institutions. 

Resolved, That, as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the 
strength, of this Rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere 
hostile to the principles of Republican government, justice and the 
national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the 
soil of the Republic ; and that we uphold and maintain the acts and 
proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has 
aimed a death-blow at this gigantic evil. We are in favor, further- 
more, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the 
people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and for- 
ever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits or the juris- 
diction of the United States. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the American people are due to the 
soldiers and sailors of the army and navy, who have periled their 
lives in defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of 
its flag; that the nation owes to them some permanent recognition of 
their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision 
for those of their survivors who have received disabling and honora- 
ble wounds in the service of the country ; and that the memories of 
those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and 
everlasting remembrance. 

Resolved, That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the 
unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Constitution 
and the principles of American liberty with which Abraham Lincoln 
has discharged, under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, the 
great duties and responsibilities of the presidential office; that we 
approve and indorse, as demanded by the emergency and essential to 
the preservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the 
Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend 
the nation against its open and secret foes; that we approve, espec- 
ially, the Proclamation of Emancipation, and the employment, as 
Union soldiers, of men heretofore held in slavery; and that we have 
full confidence in his determination to carry these, and all other con- 



— ■ — ""■ I I '. 1 — ' 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 145 

stitutional measures essential to the salvation of the country, into 
full and complete effect. 

Resolved, That "we deem it essential to the general welfare that 
harmony should prevail in the national councils, and we regard as 
worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who cor- 
dially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and 
which should characterize the administration of the government. 

Resolved, That the Government owes to all men employed in its 
armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full protection of 
the laws of war; and that any violation of these laws, or of the 
usages of civilized nations in the time of war, by the rebels now in 
arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. 

Resolved, That foreign immigration, which in the past has added 
so much to the wealth, development of resources, and increase of 
power to this nation — the asylum of the oppressed of all nations — 
should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 

Resolved, That we are in favor of the speedy construction of the 
railroad to the Pacific coast. 

Resolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of 
the public debt, must be kept inviolate ; and that, for this purpose, 
we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public expen- 
ditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation ; and that it is 
the duty of every loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the 
use of the national currency. 

Resolved, That we approve the position taken by the government, 
that the people of the United States can never regard with indiffer- 
ence the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or 
to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any Republican government 
on the western continent, and that they will view with extreme 
jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence of this, our 
country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for 
monarchical governments, sustained by a foreign military force, in 
near proximity to the United States. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM -CHICAGO, 

May 20, 1868. 
1. "We congratulate the country on the assured success of the re- 
construction policy of Congress, as evidenced by the adoption, in the 
majority of the States lately in rebellion, of Constitutions securing 
10 



146 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

equal civil and political rights to all ; and it is the duty of the Gov- 
ernment to sustain those institutions, and to prevent the people of 
such States from being remitted to a state of anarchy. 

2. The guarantee by Congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men 
at the South was demanded by every consideration of public safety, 
of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the 
question of suffrage in all the loyal States properly belongs to the 
people of those States. 

3. We denounce all forms of repudiation as a national crime; and 
the national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness 
in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not 
only according to the letter, but the spirit, of the laws under which 
it was contracted 

4. It is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should be 
equalized and reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit. 

5. The national debt, contracted as it has been for the preserva- 
tion of the Union for all time to come, should be extended over a fair 
period for redemption; and it is the duty of Congress to reduce the 
rate of interest thereon whenever it can be honestly done. 

6. That the best policy to diminish our burden of debt is to so 
improve our credit that capitalists will seek to loan us money at 
lower rates of interest than we now pay, and must continue to pay, 
so long as repudiation, partial or total, open or covert, is threatened 
or suspected. 

7. The Government of the United States should be administered 
with the strictest economy ; and the corruptions which have been so 
shamefully nursed and fostered by Andrew Johnson call loudly for 
radical reform. 

8. We profoundly deplore the tragic death of Abraham Lincoln, 
and regret the accession to the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, who 
has acted treacherously to the people who elected him and the cause 
he was pledged to support; who has usurped high legislative and 
judicial functions; who has refused to execute the laws; who has 
used his high office to induce other officers to ignore and violate the 
laws ; who has employed his executive powers to render insecure the 
property, the peace, liberty, and life of the citizens; who has abused 
the pardoning power; who has denounced the national legislature as 
unconstitutional; who has persistently and corruptly resisted, by 
every means in his power, every proper attempt at the reconstruction 
of the States lately in rebellion ; who has perverted the public pa- 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 147 

tronage into an engine of wholesale corruption ; and who has been 
justly impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and properly 
pronounced guilty thereof by a vote of thirty-five Senators. 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers, that 
because a man is once a subject he is always so, must be resisted at 
every hazard by the United States, as a relic of feudal times, not 
authorized by the laws of nations, and at war with our national 
honor and independence. Naturalized citizens are entitled to protec- 
tion in all their rights of citizenship as though they were native born; 
and no citizen of the United States, native or naturalized, must be 
liable to arrest and imprisonment by any foreign power for acts done 
or words spoken in this country ; and, if so arrested and imprisoned, 
it is the duty of the Government to interfere in his behalf. 

10. Of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there 
were none entitled to more especial honor than the brave soldiers and 
seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and im- 
periled their lives in the service of the country. The bounties and 
pensions provided by the laws for these brave defenders of the nation 
are obligations never to be forgotten ; the widows and orphans of the 
gallant dead are the wards of the people — a sacred legacy bequeathed 
to the nation's protecting care. 

11. Foreign immigration, which in the past has added so much to 
the wealth, development, and resources, and increase of power to this 
Republic, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations, should be fos- 
tered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. 

12. This convention declares itself in sympathy with all opnressetf 
people who are struggling for their rights. 

13. That we highly commend the spirit of magnanimity and for- 
bearance with which men who have served in the Rebellion, but who 
now frankly and honestly cooperate with us in restoring the peace of 
the country and reconstructing the Southern State Governments upon 
the basis of impartial justice and equal rights, are received back into 
the communion of the loyal people; and we favor the removal of the 
disqualifications and restrictions imposed upon the late rebels, in the 
same measure as the spirit of disloyalty shall die out, and as may be 
consistent with the safety of the loyal people. 

14. That we recognize the great principles laid down in the 
immortal Declaration of Independence, as the true foundation of 
democratic government; and we hail with gladness every effort 
toward making these princiioles a living reality on every inch of 
American soil. 






148 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM— PHILADELPHIA, 

June 5, 1872. 
The Republican party of the United States, assembled in National 
Convention in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 6th days of 
June, 1872, again declares its faith, appeals to its history, and an- 
nounces its position upon the questions before the country. 

1. During eleven years of supremacy it has accepted, with grand 
courage, the solemn duties of the times. It suppressed a gigantic 
Rebellion, emancipated four millions of slaves, decreed the equal citi- 
zenship of all, and established universal suffrage. Exhibiting un- 
paralleled magnanimity, it criminally punished no man for political 
offenses, and warmly welcomed all who proved their loyalty by 
obeying the laws and dealing justly with their neighbors. It has 
steadily decreased, with firm hand, the resultant disorders of a great 
war, and initiated a wise and humane policy toward the Indians. 
The Pacific railroad and similar vast enterprises have been generously 
aided and successfully conducted, the public lands freely given to 
actual settlers, immigration protected and encouraged, and a full 
acknowledgment of the naturalized citizen's rights secured from 
European powers. A uniform national currency has been provided, 
repudiation frowned down, the national credit sustained under the 
most extraordinary burdens, and new bonds negotiated at lower 
rates. The revenues have been carefully collected and honestly ap- 
plied. Despite annual large reductions of the rates of taxation, the 
public debt has been reduced during General Grant's Presidency at 
the rate of a hundred millions a year, great financial crises have been 
avoided, and peace and plenty prevail throughout the land. Menac- 
ing foreign difficulties have been peacefully and honorably com- 
promised, and the honor and power of the nation kept in high 
respect throughout the world. This glorious record of the past is 
the party's best pledge for the future. We believe the people will 
not intrust the Government to any party or combination of men 
composed chiefly of those who have resisted every step of this bene- 
ficent progress. 

2. The recent amendments to the National Constitution should be 
cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated be- 
cause they are law, and should be carried out according to their 
spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can safely 
be intrusted only to the party that secured those amendments. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 149 

3. Complete liberty and exact equality in the enjoyment of all 
civil, political, and public rights should be established and effectu- 
ally maintained throughout the Union by efficient and appropriate 
State and Federal legislation. Neither the law nor its administration 
should admit any discrimination in respect to citizens by reason of 
race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

4. The National Government should seek to maintain honorable 
peace with all nations, protecting its citizens everywhere, and sym- 
pathizing with all peoples who strive for greater liberty. 

5. Any system of civil service under which the subordinate posi- 
tions of the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal 
is fatally demoralizing; and we, therefore, favor a reform of the sys- 
tem, by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage, and make 
honesty, efficiency, and fidelity the essential qualifications for public 
positions, without practically creating a life tenure for office. 

6. We are opposed to further grants of the public lands to cor- 
porations and monopolies, and demand that the national domain be 
set apart f Or free homes for the people. 

7. The annual revenue, after paying current expenditures, pen- 
sions, and the interest on the public debt, should furnish a moderate 
balance for the reduction of the principal; and that revenue, except 
so much as may be derived from a tax upon tobacco and liquors, 
should be raised by duties upon importations, the details of which 
should be so adjusted as to aid in securing remunerative wages to 
labor, and promote the industries, prosperity, and growth of the 
whole country. 

8. We hold in undying honor the soldiers and sailors whose valor 
saved the Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt of the nation, 
and the widows and orphans of those who died for their country are 
entitled to the care of a generous and grateful people. We favor such 
additional legislation as will extend the bounty of the Government 
to all our soldiers and sailors who were honorably discharged, and 
who in the line of duty became disabled, without regard to the 
length of service or cause of such discharge. 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and other European powers 
concerning allegiance — "once a subject, always a subject" — having 
at last, through the efforts of the Eepublican party, been abandoned, 
and the American idea of the individual's right to transfer allegiance 
having been accepted by European nations, it is the duty of our 
Government to guard with jealous care the rights of adopted citizens 



150 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

against the assumption of unauthorized claims by their former gov- 
ernments, and we urge continued careful encouragement and pro- 
tection of voluntary immigration. 

10. The franking privilege ought to be abolished, and away pre- 
pared for a speedy reduction in the rates of postage. 

11. Among the questions which press for attention is that which 
concerns the relations of capital and labor ; and the Eepublican party 
recognizes the duty of so shaping legislation as to secure full protec- 
tion and the amplest field for capital, and for labor, the creator of 
capital, the largest opportunities and a just share of the mutual 
profits of these two great servants of civilization. 

12. We hold that Congress and the President have only fulfilled 
an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violence 
and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, and 
for the protection of the ballot-box; and, therefore, they are entitled 
to the thanks of the nation. 

13. We denounce repudiation of the public debt, in any form or 
disguise, as a national crime. We witness with pride the reduction 
of the principal of the debt, and of the rates of interest upon the 
balance, and confidently expect that our excellent national currency 
Will be perfected by a speedy resumption of specie payment. 

14. The Republican party is mindful of its obligations to the loyal 
women of America for their noble devotion to the cause of freedom. 
Their admission to wider fields of usefulness is viewed with satisfac- 
tion ; and the honest demand of any class of citizens for additional 
rights should be treated with respectful consideration. 

15. We heartily approve the action of Congress in extending am- 
nesty to those lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth of peace 
and fraternal feeling throughout the land. 

16. The Republican party proposes to respect the rights reserved 
by the people to themselves as carefully as the powers delegated by 
them to the States and to the Federal Government. It disapproves 
of the resort to unconstitutional laws for the purpose of removing 
evils, by interference with rights not surrendered by the people to 
either the State or National Government. 

17. It is the duty of the general Government to adopt such meas- 
ures as may tend to encourage and restore American commerce and 
ship-building. 

18. We believe that the modest patriotism, the earnest purpose, 
the sound judgment, the practical wisdom, the incorruptible integ- 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 151 

rity, and the illustrious services of Ulysses S. Grant have commended 
him to the heart of the American people; and with him at our head, 
we start to-day upon a new march to victory. 

19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the Vice-Presidency, known to 
the whole land from the early days of the great struggle for liberty 
as an indefatigable laborer in all campaigns, an incorruptible legis- 
lator and representative man of American institutions, is worthy to 
associate with our great leader and share the honors which we pledge 
our best efforts to bestow upon them. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM— CINCINNATI, 

June 14, 1876. 

When, in the economy of Providence, this land was to be purged 
of human slavery, and when the strength of the Government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people, was to be demonstrated, 
the Republican party came into power. Its deeds have passed into 
history, and we look back to them with pride. Incited by their 
memories to high aims for the good of our country and mankind, 
and looking to the future with unfaltering courage, hope, and pur- 
pose, we, the representatives of the party, in National Convention 
assembled, make the following declaration of principles: 

1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By 
the combined workings of the National and State Governments, 
under their respective Constitutions, the rights of every citizen are 
secured, at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted: 

2. The Republican party has reserved these governments to the 
hundredth anniversary of the nation's birth, and they are now em- 
bodiments of the great truths spoken at its cradle — "That all men 
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness; that for the attainment of these ends governments have 
been instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed." Until these truths are cheerfully obeyed, or, 
if need be, vigorously enforced, the work of the Republican party is 
unfinished. 

3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the 
Union, and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free en- 
joyment of all their rights, is a duty to which the Republican party 









153 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

stands sacredly pledged. The power to provide for the enforcement 
of the principles embodied in the recent constitutional amendments 
is vested, by those amendments, in the Congress of the United States; 
and we declare it to be the solemn obligation of the legislative and 
executive departments of the Government to put into immediate and 
vigorous exercise all their constitutional powers for removing any 
just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and for securing to 
every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the 
exercise of all civil, political, and public rights. To this end we 
imperatively demand a Congress and a Chief Executive whose cour- 
age and fidelity to these duties shall not falter until these results are 
placed beyond dispute or recall. 

4. In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant the 
National Government assumed to remove any doubt of its purpose 
to discharge all just obligations to its creditors, and "solemnly 
pledged its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period 
for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." Com- 
mercial prosperity, public morals, and national credit demand that 
this promise be fulfilled by a continuous and steady progress to specie 
payment. 

5. Under the Constitution, the President and heads of depart- 
ments are to make nominations for office, the Senate is to advise and 
consent to appointments, and the House of Representatives is to 
accuse and prosecute faithless officers. The best interest of the 
public service demands that these distinctions be respected; that 
Senators and Representatives who may be judges and accusers should 
not dictate appointments to office. The invariable rule in appoint- 
ments should have reference to honesty, fidelity, and capacity of 
the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where 
harmony and vigor of administration require its policy to be repre- 
sented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with 
sole reference to the efficiency of the public service, and the right of 
all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faithful service to the 
country. 

6. We rejoice in the quickened conscience of the people concern- 
ing political affairs, and will hold all public officers to a rigid respon- 
sibility, and engage that the prosecution and punishment of all who 
betray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, and unsparing. 

7. The Public-School System of the several States is the bulwark 
of the American Republic; and, with a view to its security and 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 153 

permanence, we recommend an amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, forbidding the application of any public funds or 
property for the benefit of any schools or institutions under sectarian 
control. 

8. The revenue necessary for current expenditures, and the obli- 
gations of the public debt, must be largely derived from duties upon 
importations which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote 
the interests of American labor and advance the prosperity of the 
whole country. 

9. We reaffirm our opposition to further grants of the public lands 
to corporations and monopolies, and demand that the national do- 
main be devoted to free homes for the people. 

10. It is the imperative duty of the Government so to modify 
existing treaties with European governments, that the same protec- 
tion shall be afforded to the adopted American citizen that is given 
to the native born ; and that all necessary laws shall be passed to 
protect emigrants in the absence of power in the States for that 
purpose. ^ 

11. It is the immediate duty of Congress to fully investigate the 
effect of the immigration and importation of Mongolians upon the 
moral and material interests of the country. 

12. The Republican party recognizes, with approval, the substan- 
tial advances recently made towards the establishment of equal rights 
for women by the many important amendments effected by the Re- 
publican legislatures in the laws which concern the personal and 
property relations of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the ap- 
pointment and election of women to the superintendence of educa- 
tion, charities, and other public trusts. The honest demands of this 
class of citizens for additional rights, privileges, and immunities, 
should be treated with respectful consideration. 

13. The Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power 
over the Territories of the United States for their government; and 
in the exercise of this power it is the right and duty of Congress to 
prohibit and extirpate, in the Territories, that relic of barbarism- 
polygamy; and we demand such legislation as shall secure this end 
and the supremacy of American institutions in all the Territories. 

14. The pledges which the nation has given to her soldiers and 
sailors must be fulfilled, and a grateful people will always hold those 
who imperiled their lives for the country's preservation in the kind- 
est remembrance. 



154 BEPUBLICAN PLATFOKMS. 

15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional feeling and tendencies. 
We, therefore, note with deep solicitude that the Democratic party 
counts, as its chief hope of success, upon the electoral vote of a united 
South, secured through the efforts of those who were recently arrayed 
against the nation; and we invoke the earnest attention of the coun- 
try to the grave truth that a success thus achieved would reopen 
sectional strife, and imperil national honor and human rights. 

16. We charge the Democratic party with being the same in 
character and spirit as when it sympathized with treason ; with mak- 
ing its control of the House of Representatives the triumph and 
opportunity of the nation's recent foes; with reasserting and ap- 
plauding, in the national capitol, the sentiments of unrepentent 
rebellion; with sending Union soldiers to the rear, and promoting 
Confederate soldiers to the front; with deliberately proposing to 
repudiate the plighted faith of the Government; with being equally 
false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial questions ; with 
thwarting the ends of justice by its partisan mismanagement and 
obstruction of investigation ; with proving itself, through the period 
of its ascendency in the lower house of Congress, utterly incompetent 
to administer the Government; and we warn the country against 
trusting a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, and incapable. 

17. The national administration merits commendation for its 
honorable work in the management of domestic and foreign affairs, 
and President Grant deserves the continued hearty gratitude of the 
American people for his patriotism and his eminent service in war 
and in peace. 

18. We present, as our candidates for President and Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States, two distinguished statesmen, of eminent 
ability and character, and conspicuously fitted for those high offices, 
and we confidently appeal to the American people to entrust the 
administration of their public affairs to Rutherford B. Hayes and 
William A. Wheeler. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM— CHICAGO, 

June 2, 1880. 
The Republican party, in National Convention assembled, at the 
end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first com- 
mitted to its charge, submits to the people of the United States its 
brief report of its administration: 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 155 

It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men 
to subvert the national authority. It reconstructed the Union of the 
States with freedom, instead of slavery, as its corner-stone. It 
transformed four million of human beings from the likeness of 
things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the infam- 
ous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged it to see that 
slavery does not exist. 

It has raised the value of our paper currency from thirty-eight per 
cent, to the par of gold. It has restored, upon a solid basis, pay- 
ment in coin for all the national obligations, and has given us a 
currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended 
country. It has lifted the credit of the nation from the point where 
six per cent, bonds sold at eighty-six to that where four per cent, 
bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. 

Under its administration railways have increased from 31,000 
miles in 1860, to .more than 82,000 miles in 1879. 

Our foreign trade has increased from $700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 
in the same t^me; and our exports, which were $20,000,000 less than 
our imports in 1860, were $264,000,000 more than our imports in 
1879. 

Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed 
the ordinary expenses of government, besides the accruing interest 
on the public debt, and disbursed, annually, over $30,000,000 for 
soldiers' pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and, 
by refunding the balance at lower rates, has reduced the annual 
interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 to less than $89,000,000. 

All the industries of the country have revived, labor is in demand, 
wages have increased, and throughout the entire country there is 
evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. 

Upon this record, the Eepublican party asks for the continued 
confidence and support of the people ; and this Convention submits 
for their approval the following statement of the principles and pur- 
poses which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts : 

1. We affirm that the work of the last twenty years has been such 
as to commend itself to the favor of the nation, and that the fruits 
of the costly victories which we have achieved, through immense 
difficulties, should be preserved ; that the peace regained should be 
cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily restored, should 
be perpetuated, and that the liberties secured to this generation 
should be transmitted, undiminished, to future generations; that the 






156 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

order established and the credit acquired should never he impaired; 
that the pensions promised should be paid ; that the debt so much 
reduced should be extinguished by the full payment of every dollar 
thereof; that the reviving industries should be further promoted; 
and that the commerce, already so great, should be steadily encouraged. 

2. The Constitution of the United States is a supreme law, and 
not a mere contract; out of Confederate States it made a sovereign 
nation. Some powers are denied to the nation, while others are 
denied to States ; but the boundary between the powers delegated 
and those reserved is to be determined by the national and not by 
the State tribunals. 

3. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the 
several States, but it is the duty of the national government to aid 
that work to the extent of its constitutional ability. The intelligence 
of the nation is but the aggregate of the intelligence of the several 
States ; and the destiny of the nation must be guided, not by the 
genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. 

4. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law 
respecting an establishment of religion; but it is idle to hope that 
the nation can be protected against the influence of sectarianism 
while each State is exposed to its domination. We, therefore, recom- 
mend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohi- 
bition upon the Legislature of each State, to forbid the appropriation 
of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. 

5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in 1876, that the duties levied 
for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as to favor Amer- 
ican labor ; that no further grant of the public domain should be 
made to any railway or other corporation; that slavery having per- 
ished in the States, its twin barbarity — polygamy — must die in the 
territories ; that everywhere the protection accorded to citizens of 
American birth must be secured to citizens of American adoption ; 
that we esteem it the duty of Congress to develop and improve our 
water -courses and harbors, but insist that further subsidies to private 
persons or corporations must cease; that the obligations of the repub- 
lic to the men who preserved its integrity in the day of battle are 
undiminished by the lapse of fifteen years since their final victory — 
to do them perpetual honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful 
privilege and sacred duty of the American people. 

6. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse 
between the United States and foreign nations rests with the Con- 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 157 

gress of the United States and its treaty-making powers, the Repub- 
lican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese 
as an evil of great magnitude, invoke the exercise of that power to 
restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of such just, 
humane, and reasonable provisions as will produce that result. 

7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the early 
career of Rutherford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which guided 
the thoughts of our immediate predecessor to select him for a presi- 
dential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as 
chief executive, and that history will accord to his administration 
the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and courteous dis- 
charge of the public business, and will honor his interposition 
between the people and proposed partisan laws. 

8. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of 
patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and 
patronage. That to obtain possession of the National and State 
Governments, and the control of place and position, they have 
obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the 
freedom of suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifications and 
returns; have labored to unseat lawfully-elected members of Con- 
gress, to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a majority of the States 
in the House* of Representatives; have endeavored to occupy, by 
force and fraud, the places of trust given to others by the people of 
Maine, and rescued by the courageous action of Maine's patriotic 
sons ; have, by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in prac- 
tice, attached partisan legislation to appropriation bills, upon whose 
passage the very movements of governments depend; have crushed 
the rights of the individual; have advocated the principle and sought 
the favor of rebellion against the nation, and have endeavored to 
obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inesti- 
mably valuable results of nationality, personal freedom, and indi- 
vidual equality. Equal, steady, and complete enforcement of the 
laws, and protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privi- 
leges and immunities guaranteed by the Constitution, are the first 
duties of the nation. The danger of a solid South can only be 
averted by the faithful performance of every promise which the 
nation made to the citizen. The execution of the laws, and the 
punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods 
by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity 
established throughout the South. Whatever promises the nation 



158 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

makes, the nation must perform; and the nation cannot with safety- 
relegate this duty to the States. The solid South must be divided by 
the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions must there find 
free expression: and to this end honest voters must be protected 
against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the 
duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use all legitimate 
means to restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect har- 
mony which may be practicable; and we submit to the practical, 
sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be 
dangerous to the dearest interests of our country, at this time to sur- 
render the administration of the National Government to a party 
which seeks to overthrow the existing policy, under which we are so 
prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there is now 
order, confidence, and hope. 

9. The Republican party, adhering to a principle affirmed by "its 
last National Convention, of respect for the Constitutional rule cov- 
ering appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President 
Hayes, that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radi- 
cal, and complete. To this end it demands the cooperation of the 
legislative with the executive department of the Government, and 
that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper 
practical tests, shall admit to the public service; and that the power 
of removal for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct 
of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORM— CHICAGO, 
June 3, 1884. 

The Republicans of the United States, in National Convention 
assembled, renew their allegiance to the principle upon which they 
have triumphed in six successive Presidential elections, and congrat- 
ulate the American people on the attainment of so many results in 
legislation and administration by which the Republican party has, 
after saving the Union, done so much to render its institutions just, 
equal, and beneficent — the safeguard of liberty and the embodiment 
of the best thought and highest purposes of our citizens. 

The Republican party has gained its strength by quick and faithful 
response to the demands of the people for the freedom and the 
equality of all men, for a united nation assuring the rights of all 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 159 

citizens, for the elevation of labor, for an honest currency, for purity 
in legislation, and for integrity and accountability in all departments 
of the Government; and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the 
work of progress and reform. 

We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound states- 
manship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a strong 
and successful Administration, a promise fully realized during the 
short period of his office as President of the United States. His 
distinguished success in war and in peace has endeared him to the 
hearts of the American people. 

In the Administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, 
conservative, and patriotic policy, under which the country has been 
blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his eminent 
services are entitled to, and will receive, the hearty approval of 
every citizen. 

It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights and 
promote the interests of its own people. The largest diversity of 
industry is most productive of general prosperity and of the comfort 
and independence of the people. We therefore demand that the 
imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made, not for reve- 
nue only, but that, in raising the requisite revenues for the Govern- 
ment, such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our 
diversified industries and protection to the rights and wages of the 
laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as well as capital, 
may have its just reward and the laboring man his full share in the 
national prosperity. Against the so-called economic system of the 
Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign 
standard, we enter our earnest protest. The Democratic party has 
failed completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary 
taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Republican party 
pledges itself to correct the inequalities of the tariff and to reduce 
the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of hori- 
zontal reduction, but by such methods as will relieve the tax-payer 
without injuring the labor or the great productive interests of the 
country. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the 
United States, the serious depression which it is now experiencing, 
and the danger threatening its future prosperity; and we therefore 
respect the demands of the representative of this important agricultu- 
ral interest for a readjustment of duty upon foreign wool, in order 
that such industry shall have full and adequate protection. 



160 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

We have always recommended the best money known to the civil- 
ized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite all com- 
mercial nations in the establishment of an international standard 
which shall fix for all the relative value of gold and silver coinage. 

The regulation of commerce with foreign nations and between the 
States is one of the most important prerogatives of the General 
Government, and the Republican party distinctly announces its pur- 
pose to support such legislation as will fully and efficiently carry out 
the constitutional power of Congress over inter-State commerce. 
The principle of the public regulation of railway corporations is a 
w r ise and salutary one for the protection of all classes of the people, 
and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust discrimination and 
excessive charges for transportation, and that shall secure to the 
people and to the railways alike the fair and equal protection of the 
laws. 

We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor, the 
enforcement of the eight-hour law, a wise and judicious system of 
general education by adequate appropriation from the national reve- 
nues wherever the same is needed. 

We believe that everywhere the protection to a citizen of American 
birth must be secured to citizens by American adoption, and we 
favor the settlement of national differences by international arbi- 
tration. 

The Republican party having its birth in a hatred of slave labor, 
and in a desire that all men may be free and equal, is unalterably 
opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any form 
of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit we 
denounce the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or 
Asia, as an offense against the spirit of American institutions, and 
we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese 
immigration and to provide such further legislation as is necessary 
to carry out its purposes. 

The reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Republi- 
can administration, should be completed by the further extension of 
the reformed system already established by law to all the grades of 
the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the 
reform should be observed in all executive appointments, and all 
laws at variance with the objects of existing reformed legislation 
should be repealed, to the end that the dangers to free institutions 
which lurk in the power of official patronage may be wisely and 
effectively awarded. 



REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 161 

The public lands are the heritage of the people of the United 
States, and should be reserved as far as possible, for small holdings 
by actual settlers. "We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts 
of these lands by corporations or individuals, especially where such 
holdings are in the hands of non-resident aliens, and we will endeavor 
to obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this evil. 

We demand of Congress the speedy forfeitures of all land grants 
which have lapsed by reason of non-compliance with acts of incor- 
poration in all cases where there has been no attempt in good faith 
to perform the conditions of such grants. 

The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the Union 
soldier and sailors of the late war, and the Republican party stands 
pledged to suitable pensions for all who were disabled, and for the 
widows and orphans of those who died in the war. The Republican 
party also pledged itself to the repeal of the limitations contained in 
the arrears act of 1879, so that all invalid soldiers shall share alike, 
and their pensions shall begin with the date of disability or dis- 
charge, and not with the date of the application. 

The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us from 
entangling alliance with foreign nations, and which shall give the 
right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from meddling in 
American affairs. The policy which seeks peace and can trade with 
all powers, but especially with those of the Western Hemisphere. 

We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time strength 
and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the rights of American 
citizens and the interests of American commerce, and we call upon 
Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has 
been depressed, so that it may again be true that we have a com- 
merce which leaves no sea unexplored, and a navy which takes no 
law from superior force. 

Resolved, That appointments by the President to offices in the 
Territories should be made from the bona fide citizens and residents 
of the Territories which they are to serve. 

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws as 
shall promptly and effectually suppress the system of polygamy 
within our Territory and divorce the political from the ecclesiastical 
power from the so-called Mormon Church, and that the Jaw so 
enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil authorities if possi- 
ble, and by the military if need be. 

The people of the United States, in their organized capacity, con- 
11 



162 REPUBLICAN PLATFORMS. 

stitute a nation, and not a mere confederacy of States. The National 
Government is supreme within its sphere of national duty, but the 
States have reserved rights which should be faithfully maintained ; 
each should be guarded with jealous care, so that the harmony of our 
system of government may be preserved and the Union kept invio- 
late. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance 
of a free ballot, an honest count, and correct returns. We denounce 
the fraud and violence practiced by the Democracy in Southern 
States, by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dangerous to the 
preservation of free institutions, and we solemnly arraign the Demo- 
cratic party as being the guilty recipient of the fruits of such fraud 
and violence. 

We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their 
former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them 
our most earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as 
will secure to every citizen, of whatever race or color, the full and 
complete recognition, possession, and exercise of all civil and political 
rights. 



DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, 1864. 163 

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM— CHICAGO. 

August 29, 1864. 

Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with 
unswerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution, as the only 
solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, 
and as a frame-work of government equally conducive to the welfare 
and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern. 

Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense 
of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the 
Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense 
of a military necessity of a war power higher than the Constitution, 
the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public 
liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material pros- 
perity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a 
cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all 
the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest 
practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Fed- 
eral Union of all the States. 

Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authority of 
the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky, Mary- 
land, Missouri, and Delaware, was a shameful violation of the Con- 
stitution ; and the repetition of such acts in the approaching election 
will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the means and 
power under our control. 

Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to 
preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired; 
and that they hereby declare that they consider the administrative 
usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by 
the Constitution, the subversion of the civil by the military law in 
States not in insurrection, the arbitrary military arrest, imprison- 
ment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil 
law exists in full force, the suppression of freedom of speech and of 
the press, the denial of the right of asylum, the open and avowed 
disregard of State rights, the employment of unusual test-oaths, and 
the interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear 
arms in their defense, as calculated to prevent a restoration of the 
Union and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers 
from the consent of the governed. 



164 DEMOCKATIC PLATFORM, 1864. 

Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the administration to its 
duty in respect to our fellow-citizens who now are, and long have 
been, prisoners of war, in a suffering condition, deserves the sever- 
est reprobation, on the score alike of public policy and common 
humanity. 

Resolved, That the sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily 
and earnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and the sailors of 
our navy, who are and have been in the field and on sea under the 
flag of their country ; and, in the event of our attaining power, they 
will receive all the care and protection, regard and kindness, that 
the brave soldiers of the Republic have so nobly earned. 





'Ot^ug? 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 



THE nomination of Mr. Blaine was not an accident, nor was it 
due to a systematic organization of political force. Indeed, 
the friends of other candidates were more active than were the 
friends of Mr. Blaine. 

Opposing candidates were presented in each of six States, New 
York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, and Vermont. These 
candidates were not only strong within the States where they resided, 
respectively, but they commanded confidence, and were entitled to 
support in all parts of the Union. 

In several of those States delegates were elected who were friendly 
to Mr. Blaine, and he was the second choice of a majority of those 
who preferred other candidates. 

Hence, at Chicago, the fact was disclosed at an early stage of the 
Convention that it was impossible to unite the delegates who pre- 
f ered other candidates upon any one of the candidates named. This 
circumstance was not due to any want of confidence in or respect 
for those candidates, but to the fact that Mr. Blaine was the second 
choice of many whose first preference was for other persons. It is 
thus apparent that Mr. Blaine's nomination was acceptable to a large 
majority of the Convention. 

Mr. Blaine's popularity in the country is not due to a sudden and 
unreasoning impluse on the part of the people. The period of its 
growth extends over many years, and the events of those years 
demonstrate the depth and strength of the public feeling. He was 
the leading candidate in the Convention of 1876 ; he was a formida- 
ble candidate in the Convention of 1880; and he is the successful 
candidate of the Republican party in 1884. Neither his candidacy 
nor his nomination can be treated as a surprise. 

Nor can it be assumed with any degree of justice that his nomina- 
tion is due to the machinations of leaders. A candidacy might be 

(165) 



166 PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 

advanced, and a nomination even might be secured by the organized 
efforts of friends, but such agencies are quite inadequate to give to a 
man a continuing and increasing support in three successive presi- 
dential contests. And especially must this be true when the candi- 
date is without office, without patronage, and destitute of all extra- 
neous means of advancing himself in the public esteem. 

Therefore his standing among the people is not due to agencies or 
to extraneous influences, but to the presence of personal qualities 
constantly and through many years exhibited. In the elements and 
characteristics of leadership in public, political affairs, he has not 
been surpassed by any one in America and equaled only by Mr. 
Clay. In Mr. Blaine are combined, as was the case also in Mr. Clay, 
the power of controlling deliberative assemblies by the exhibition of 
courage, tact, and skill in debate, with personal qualities which 
inspire confidence and promote lasting attachments in those persons 
to whom a leader is known only by a casual introduction or temporary 
acquaintance. 

By the possession and exhibition of this combination of rare qual- 
ities, Mr. Blaine rose rapidly to the position of a leader in the House 
of Representatives, while at the same time he gained the confidence 
and enlisted the support of the majority of those in the country 
who agreed with him in political opinions. 

It is a significant fact that Mr. Blaine's strongholds in the country 
are in the States and districts where the Republican party can com- 
mand majorities. This fact precludes the suggestion or the thought 
that the nomination of Mr. Blaine was due to the schemes of parti- 
sans. It was in fact due to the opinion of the Republican masses 
that he was the fittest man in the party for the post of leader in a 
great national contest. 

His nomination was an act of submission to the will of the major- 
ity and as the will of the majority it is entitled to respect. 

The rule of the minority in parties can only end in the overthrow 
of Free States. If parties are ruled by minorities, then, as a con- 
sequence, the States themselves will be ruled by minorities. Dis- 
satisfied minorities are justifiable when they change their party 
allegiance; but unsatisfied minorities are not to be justified in de- 
manding the submission of the majority to their will, and when 
such demands are made a wise majority will decline to accede to 
them and at the hazard of whatever consequences may follow. It 
was only that, that the South demanded as the price of peace. 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 167 

The entire period of Mr. Blaine's public life has been devoted to the 
support of the principles of the Republican party. In two most 
important ways he has earned the right to represent that party. 

First, as a brilliant, bold, and skillful leader in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, and then as an aggressive, eloquent, and convincing cam- 
paign speaker. 

In successive presidential contests he advanced the cause and 
defended the positions of the Republican party in a manner to satisfy 
his friends and to command the respect and excite the fears of his 
opponents. 

Mr. Blaine was elected a member of the thirty-eighth Congress 
and he took his seat in December, 1863. His career as a public man 
then opened before him and at the first session he achieved a national 
reputation. He was then thirty-three years of age. 

That House of Representatives was the first House elected under 
the pressure and the responsibilities of the war. " Fortunate is that 
country whose) annals are uninteresting," is a maxim whose reason is 
found in the fact that in peaceful times men of moderate abilities 
rise to places of distinction and thus the times neither show forth 
eminent talents in rulers nor extraordinary events in affairs. The 
Thirty-eighth Congress contained many able men and in American 
history it is only surpassed by the Thirty-ninth Congress. The- 
House of Representatives numbered among its members Stevens, 
Kelley, Randall, and Schofield of Pennsylvania; Schenck, Garfield, 
Cox, Ashley, and Pendleton, from Ohio; "Winter Davis, Francis 
Thomas, and Creswell from Maryland; Wilson, Allison, and Kas- 
son, from Iowa; E. B. Washburne, and Owen Lovejoy from Illinois, 
and Yoorhees, Julian, Orth, and Colfax from Indiana. Many of 
these men, and others their equals from other States, had had long 
experience in public affairs. In such an assembly it was no easy 
undertaking for a new member to rise to a position of recognized 
equality with old leaders and trained parliamentarians. The House 
of Representatives always possesses a large share of ability, and the 
judgment pronounced upon its own members is always a just judg- 
ment. Mediocrity and pretense may find favor occasionally, but for 
a brief period only at most, while capacity to deal with questions 
and affairs is early recognized and the possessor is accorded his true 
position freely and without delay. The House is usually just to its 
own members. 

It is a noticeable fact, that of the eminent men who were members 
of the House of Representatives of the Thirty-eighth Congress, and 



168 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAIXE. 

especially of those who were members for the first time, a large 
number were under forty years of age. Of those mentioned, neither 
Garfield, Blaine, Cox, Ashley, Randall, Pendleton, Creswell, Wilson, 
Allison, or Voorhees had reached that age. Some of these men had 
then acquired a national reputation, and others gained that distinc- 
tion without delay. Mr. Conkling had been elected to the Thirty- 
sixth Congress when he was only thirty years of age, and at an earlier 
period in our history Webster, Clay, Calhoun and others were known 
to the country before they had reached that period of life, and their 
qualities were as well understood, and appreciated as justly as they 
were in their maturer years. 

It is a singular fact, that at this moment there is not one man in 
the country, and who is less than forty years of age, that has 
achieved a national reputation in politics or law. The same remarks 
may be made of England, France, and Germany. If there are 
exceptions, knowledge of the gifted persons has not reached this 
country. 

The first important debate in which Mr. Blaine took a part related 
to the tariff, and his speech was called out by an attack made by Mr. 
Cox of Ohio, upon the system of protection, and consequently upon 
New England as at once responsible for the wrong and the chief 
beneficiary of it. 

After an elaborate review of the tariff, Mr. Cox said: "I never 
was afraid of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dear- 
est market I could find. "...'* The tendency of the present tariff 
system, and, in fact, of all tariffs, revenue or protective, more or less, 
is to drain wealth from the unprotected States and accumulate it in 
the protected States. It can now be understood why New England 
accumulates wealth so much more rapidly than the Western States." 

To these assertions and doctrines Mr. Blaine replied, and in his 
reply he exhibited the qualities which have rendered him efficient in 
controversial debate and conspicuous before the country. He spoke 
for Maine as a State, but as a member of the Union, rather than as a 
State of the New England group. His mode of defense was a system 
of attack also. Ohio was arraigned as a State that derived more benefit 
from the system of protection than fell to the State of Maine. 

Mr. Cox's speech was prepared with great care, and it was stuffed 
with statistics, designed to prove that the doctrine of protection was 
an error, that its application in this country divided the States into 
two classes — the protected and non-protected, — and that the Eastern 
States, and the States of New England especially, were protected, 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 169 

while the States of the West were the non-protected class. In his 
view, taxation without benefits was imposed upon one set of States, 
and bounties, which yielded no consideration in return, were distrib- 
uted to other States. The argument was based upon the census of 
1860, supported by writers upon political economy, from Adam Smith 
to Dr. Wayland, and elaborated through twenty-five columns of the 
Congressional Globe. Mr. Blaine's reply was made without prepara- 
tion, and it illustrates, therefore, his ability to command his re- 
sources upon the instant — a quality indispensable in a leader. 

An inexorable law of parliamentary life assigns to the leader 
the task of meeting every opponent upon the ground that he may 
choose, and that without delay. For this task Mr. Blaine was ever 
ready, and he accepted it not so much as a necessity or a duty as a 
pleasure which he coveted. If his reply to Mr. Cox does not present 
him at his best, it illustrates his readiness in debate, his system of 
defense by attack, and his power to marshal the facts and events in 
history in support of his views and position. 

"It has grown to be a habit in this House, Mr. Chairman, to speak 
of New England as a unit, and in assailing the New England States 
to class them together, as has been done to-day by the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Cox) throughout his entire speech. In response to 
such attacks, each particular Eepresentative from a New England 
State might feel called upon to defend the whole section. For my- 
self, sir, I take a different view. I have the honor to represent in 
part only one State, the State of Maine, and I have no more to do 
with the local and particular interests of the rest of New England 
than with any other State in the Union. The other New England 
States are ably represented upon this floor, and it would be officious 
and arrogant in me to attempt to speak for them. But when the 
gentleman from Ohio presumes to charge here that the State I repre- 
sent receives from Federal legislation any undue protection to her 
local interests, he either ignorantly or willfully misrepresents the case 
so grossly, that for ten minutes I will occupy the attention of the 
House in correcting him. 

" If the gentleman from Ohio who has given us such a learned 
lecture on political economy were at all well posted in regard to the 
industrial pursuits of the people of Maine, he would know that the 
great and leading interests are lumber and navigation. Now will 
the gentleman be good enough to tell the House what protection is 
extended by the laws of the United States to the lumber interest? 
At no time in our history, sir, did lumber receive more than a feeble 



170 PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 

protection, and even that was taken away ten years ago by the gen- 
tleman's political associates when they formed the reciprocity treaty, 
and thus broke down the only barrier we had, and threw in the whole 
lumber product of the British Provinces to compete with us. And 
in regard to our great interest of navigation, will the gentleman be 
good enough to tell the House when a ship is launched from a Maine 
ship-yard to engage in the commerce of the world, what protection 
is given by the United States laws against competition with foreign 
bottoms? Not a particle, sir. These two great leading interests of 
my State derive no advantage from Federal legislation, while one of 
them has been very greatly damaged by the treaty-making power of 
the Federal Government. I do not hesitate to declare here to-day 
that the State of Ohio has upon her products and her manufactures 
ten dollars of protection from Federal legislation where Maine has 
twenty-five cents. 

"But, sir, let us take another view of this matter. The State of 
Maine consumes every year five hundred thousand barrels of flour, 
all of which, with a very trifling exception, is brought from the West, 
and a large proportion, I presume, from the State of Ohio. Now, 
if the gentleman's logic be good, it would be a very admirable idea 
for this country to so change its domestic industry as to detach the 
six hundred thousand people of Maine from their present pursuits 
and convert them into producers instead of consumers of bread-stuffs 
and provisions. And let this change be made throughout all the 
manufacturing and commercial districts of the Union, converting 
the five million consumers into producers of grain and meats, and 
the withering effect on the gentleman's State and on the entire West 
would be too apparent to require a speech of an hour and a half to 
demonstrate it. Sir, I am tired of such talk as the gentleman from 
Ohio has indulged in to-day, and in so far that it includes my 
own State as being a pensioner upon the General Government, 
or being dependent upon the bounty of any other State, I hurl 
back the charge with scorn. If there be a State in this Union 
that can say with truth that her Federal connection confers no 
special benefit of a material character, that State is Maine. And 
yet, sir, no State is more attached to the Federal Union than Maine. 
Her affection and her pride are centered in the Union, and God 
knows that she has contributed of her best blood and treasure with- 
out stint in supporting the war for the Union ; and she will do so to 
the end. But she resents, and I, speaking for her, resent the insinu- 
ation that she derives any undue advantage from Federal legislation 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 171 

or that she gets a single dollar that she does not pay hack. As com- 
pared with Ohio, whence this slander comes, I repeat, sir, that 
Maine receives from the Federal legislation no protection worth 

reckoning. 

* # * * * * * * * 

' ' No, sir ; but the gentleman comes up here and classifies the States 
of the Union as ' protected ' and ' unprotected ' States, and he puts 
my State in the ' protected ' class, while the most youthful page on 
this floor who has studied Mitchell's Geography knows that the gen- 
tleman's own State derives from the General Government an im- 
measurably larger degree of protection for her local interests than 
the State of Maine does. And I tell the gentleman that he shall not 
with impunity include my State in his wholesale slander. 

"I observe, sir, that a great deal has been said, recently, in the 
other end of the Capitol in regard to the fishing bounties, a portion 
of which is paid to Maine. I have a word to say on that matter, and 
I may as well say it here. According to the records of the Navy 
Department, the State of Maine has sent into the naval service since 
the beginning of this war six thousand skilled seamen, to say nothing 
of the trained and invaluable officers she has contributed to the same 
sphere of patriotic duty. For these men the State has received no 
credit whatever on her quotas for the army. If you will calculate 
the amount of bounty that would have been paid to that number of 
men had they enlisted in the army instead of entering the navy, as 
they did, without bounty, you will find it will foot up a larger sum 
than Maine has received in fishing bounties for the past twenty years. 
Thus, sir, the original proposition on which fishing bounties were 
granted— that they would build up a hardy and skillful class of 
mariners for the public defense in time of public danger — has been 
made good a hundred and a thousand-fold by the experience and the 
developments of this war. 

"Thus much, sir, I have felt called upon to say in response to the 
elaborate and carefully prepared speech of the gentleman from 
Ohio. I have spoken in vindication of a State that is as independent 
and as proud as any within the limits of the Union. I have spoken 
for a people as high-toned and as honorable as can be found in the 
wide world. I have spoken for a particular class— many of them 
my constituents — who are as manly and as brave as ever faced the 
ocean's storms. And so long, sir, as I have a seat on this floor the 
State of Maine shall not be slandered by the gentleman from Ohio, 
or by gentlemen from any other State." 



172 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 

"When the bill to amend the act for enrolling and calling out the 
national forces was pending in the House of Representatives (Febru- 
ary, 1865), Mr. Blaine proposed an amendment designed to remedy 
the injustice of allowing credits to towns and cities for men not 
furnished by such cities and towns. In support of the amendment 
Mr. Blaine said, ' ' nothing so discourages and disheartens the brave 
men at the front as the belief that proper measures are not adopted 
at home for reinforcing and sustaining them. Even a lukewarmness 
or a backwardness is enough ; but when you add to that the suspicion 
that unfair devices have been resorted to by those charged with fill- 
ing quotas, you naturally inflame the prejudices and passions of our 
veterans in the field in a manner calculated to lessen their personal 
zeal and generally to weaken the discipline of the army. After four 
years of such patriotic and heroic effort for national unity as the 
world has never witnessed before, we cannot now afford to have the 
great cause injured, or its fair fame darkened by a single unworthy 
incident connected with it. The improper practices of individuals 
cannot disgrace or degrade the nation ; but after these practices are 
brought to the attention of Congress we shall assuredly be dis- 
graced and degraded if we fail to apply the requisite remedy when 
that remedy is in our power. 

Let us then in this hour of triumph to the national arms do our 
duty here, our duty to the troops in the field, our duty to our con- 
stituents at home, and our duty, above all. to our country, whose 
existence has been in such peril in the past, but whose future of 
greatness and glory seems now so assured and so radiant. " 

At the commencement of the first session of the thirty-ninth Con- 
gress, Mr. Blaine introduced a bill to reimburse the loyal States for 
the expenses incurred and debts contracted in support of the war for 
the preservation of the Union. The proposition involved an appro- 
priation of about one hundred and eighteen million dollars. He 
supported the measure in an elaborate speech in which he reviewed 
the scheme of Mr. Hamilton for the assumption of the State debts 
in the administration of Gen. Washington, and he cited also the 
opinions of many eminent men who favored the act. In that speech 
Mr. Blaine had a field for the use of his knowledge of American 
political history, extensive, minute, and accurate, a knowledge for 
which he has found a large field in his great work, Twenty Years 
in Congress. 

That speech, however, presents Mr. Blaine at his best as a parlia- 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 173 

mentary speaker. It is not an oration, and the day has passed for 
the delivery of orations in deliberative assemblies. Henceforth, 
orations are reserved for anniversary days and commemorative 
occasions. Argument is every where acceptable; a clear, chaste, 
forcible style is demanded; and when the cause or the occasion justi- 
fies or requires that elevated quality of speech which we call elo- 
quence, but which no one can describe, and which only a favored 
few can create, the charm is for all, the rustic and the noble, the 
ignorant and the learned, the generation that is and the generations, 
successive, that are to come. 

Interest in the subject of Mr. Blaine's speech has passed away; but 
if the speech itself can now attract the reader, its quality is thus 
shown to be above the reach of disparaging criticism. 

Closing his review of the history of the country in regard to the 
assumption of State debts, he says : 

* ' The precedents, then, for such legislation as is contemplated in the 
pending bill are ample and uniform in our congressional history. 
The principles on which this legislation is based are so plain as to 
scarcely need any argument in support of them, and yet, with your 
leave, I will proceed to point out some reasons of peculiar force, as 
it seems to me, why the State debts incurred in the war for the Union 
should be made a common charge on the national treasury. If such 
reimbursement was just and equitable in former wars, it is so now in 
a far more enlarged and imperative sense. 

"I need not remind the House, Mr. Chairman, that during the past 
five years all the loyal States have been compelled to raise large sums 
of money in aid and support of the war for the Union. The statis- 
tics of expenditure have been gathered with all practicable exactness 
by the special committee which reported the pending bill, and the 
aggregate in the loyal States reached well-nigh five hundred million 
dollars. Nor was this vast sum of money expended fruitlessly, 
needlessly, or wasteful! y. I do not state the case too strongly when 
I assert that without it the war would not and could not have suc- 
ceeded. Had not volunteering been stimulated and sustained by the 
State and local bounties we should have been thrown back on the 
"rough and perilous edge " of the draft in its naked, indiscriminate, 
and most repulsive form. At several of the most critical junctures 
of the war, when reverses had been experienced, when popular 
ardor and hope were chilled, and when the administration felt weak 
and timid, the revival of patriotism and courage throughout the 



174 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 

land had its origin in the stimulus imparted to fresh volunteering by 
the large inducement of the local bounties. The most that can be 
said in favor of the conscription law is that it operated as an incen- 
tive to enlistments, being held in terrorem over the people, and induc- 
ing thousands to volunteer for bounties in order to avoid the possi- 
ble alternative of being drafted into the service without other 
pecuniary reward than the monthly pay. It is not discreditable to 
American patriotism that our people have a deep prejudice against 
conscriptions, and it was therefore wise, nay, it was absolutely neces- 
sary, for the strength, harmony, and success of the Union cause, 
that the loyal States, counties, cities, and towns, should offer boun- 
ties sufficient to fill the ranks of our army without a ruthless resort 
to the draft. The money thus expended for bounties was, I repeat, 
wisely, and in the main economically, expended; far more carefully, 
indeed, than the average of Federal disbursements during the war. 
Though raised by local effort, every dollar of it was designed for the 
good of the national cause; and hence every dollar is fairly reimburs- 
able from the national treasury. 

And this great effort on the part of the loyal States was not made 
for themselves only. Success of the Union cause was really of no 
more importance to them than to the revolted States, to the States 
yet to grow up on our vast western domain, and, indeed, to all the 
generations that are to follow us as American citizens and the inher- 
itors of Republican Government and constitutional liberty. The 
contest was not local, but general ; not for ourselves, but for man- 
kind ; not merely for to-day, but for all time. The twenty-five loyal 
States derive no more advantage from the victorious issue of the 
war than do the eleven revolted States which were thereby saved 
from anarchy and destruction, or the forty new States that are yet 
to be added to the Union, and which would never have had an 
opportunity to reach an organized existence but for the successful 
struggle which has assured to them the fostering care and protecting 
segis of the great Republic. 

The contest, then, was one in which all the States, both now 
existing and hereafter to be organized, were equally interested; and 
what justice, what semblance even of fair dealing is there in leaving 
a heavy burden of debt on Maine, while Nevada has not paid a dollar 
in the struggle ; or in asking Michigan to pour out her money and 
her credit like water, while Colorado escapes without the cost of a 
penny? Nevada and Colorado were as much interested prospectively 



PUBLIC SEHVICES OF JAMES a. BLAINE. 175 

in the result of the contest as Maine and Michigan, and the burden 
should be proportionally and impartially shared between them. 

Some gentlemen, with a tender sympathy which I fail to appreci- 
ate, argue that the Southern States have suffered so severely in their 
abortive rebellion that they ought not to be called on to bear any- 
thing more than their part of the national debt already contracted. 
What those States expended in their wicked effort to destroy this 
Union is not, in my judgment, to be reckoned to their credit on the 
national ledger, nor is the exhaustion to which they were reduced 
by their insane persistence in the war, to be made the basis of an 
appeal to our sympathy, much less to our reason. They were kept 
back from suicide and redeemed with a great price, and it is but f air 
and honest that they should pay their full proportion of the cost, 
even to the uttermost farthing. But as a matter of fact let it be 
asserted that the lately revolted States are not burdened or embar- 
rassed with debt. Their obligations incurred in supporting the 
rebellion have been or will be repudiated, so that however much 
certain speculative traitors may lose, the political communities are 
free from debt and will enjoy light local taxation. They are not 
therefore in a position to decline their fair share of the national 
burden, and as the tax to support that burden is raised wholly by 
impost and excise, it cannot fall heavily on any community until the 
revival of business and the development of trade shall provide the 
means of meeting and sustaining it. 

And in this connection let me remark, Mr. Chairman, that it is 
not only for the interest of the loyal States to adopt this measure, 
but it is preeminently for their interest to adopt it now. The subject 
is a dangerous one to leave open, and unless definitely and finally 
closed at this time it may reappear in a future Congress in a form 
most embarrassing and detrimental to the national treasury and the 
national credit. Whenever the Kepresentatives are readmitted on 
this floor from the Southern States you will find a series of proposi- 
tions introduced for the relief of their constituents from losses 
entailed by the war. These schemes will embrace compensation for 
slaves emancipated for the benefit of the Union ; restitution for prop- 
erty seized for the use of the .Federal army; payment for losses 
inflicted by the march of our troops, and the nameless and number- 
less other claims which the extraordinary events of the past five years 
will so readily suggest. Let us beware how we leave open a class of 
meritorious claims from the loyal States with which the southern 



176 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAESE. 

jobs may be combined and coalesced into a gigantic onslaught upon 
the Federal treasury. Pass the present measure and you at once 
remove the opportunity and the temptation for such a dangerous 
coalition. Pledge the one hundred and eighteen millions embraced 
in this bill, and you will thereby escape the danger of paying twelve 
hundred millions in the future. The whole matter is subject to our 
control to-day. It may not always remain so. 

For many years to come, Mr. Chairman, the loyal States will in 
any event inevitably bear the principal burden in sustaining the 
national credit. In addition to this, unless the pending measure 
prevails, they will each be called upon to bear a large local debt 
whose interest is provided by direct, merciless, and I had almost 
said, ruinous taxation. Throughout the States represented on this 
floor to-day the direct tax on property, real and personal, will annu- 
ally average more than two per cent, of its value, while in many 
communities it reaches the staggering rate of three to three and a 
half and even four per cent. Such taxation may be endured, and 
has been patiently and patriotically endured during our great strug- 
gle for national existence, but as a permanent charge upon the prop- 
erty of the country, ina ddition to all the Federal taxes, it is more 
than can be borne without grievous affliction. Let it be remembered 
that the local tax of which I am speaking comes in the most oppres- 
sive form. It is not disguised by any excise system, nor lightened 
by any indirection. It is so many dollars out of the earnings of the 
farmer, the gains of the merchant, the wages of the mechanic, and 
the savings of the humblest. It embarrasses every enterprise, is felt 
as a hardship at every fireside, and shrouds the business and com- 
mercial future with doubt and despondency. The communities that 
are thus suffering have never thought and will never think of resort- 
ing to repudiation as a remedy, but their high sense of honor on this 
point and their determination to meet all their obligations should not 
be taken, as I am sorry to say it is by some, as an argument for leav- 
ing them to struggle unaided against their onerous and crushing 
burdens. 

But the financial question involved in this measure is not of 
pressing interest merely to the States that are so sorely burdened 
with debt and taxation. I maintain that it is of equal importance to 
the General Government that these debts be assumed, and my fear is 
that if this policy should be rejected serious embarrassment may- 
result to the Treasury of the United States. When Mr. Hamilton 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 177 

originally recommended the policy of assumption with regard to the 
revolutionary debt, he did not view it simply from the stand-point of 
justice to the States, but quite as much from motives of sound policy 
touching the interests of the Federal Treasury. To quote his own 
language, he declared that "the assumption of the State debts was 
no less a measure of sound policy than of substantial justice, and 
that it would contribute in an eminent degree to an orderly, stable, 
and satisfactory arrangement of the national finances." The com- 
munities that are oppressed with these local debts are the same that 
pay almost the entire national revenue collected under the excise 
law, and the latter is felt as an infinitely greater burden because of 
its coming in addition to the heavy direct tax levied by the local 
authorities. Could this local tax be relieved to the extent which this 
bill would relieve it, the Federal tax could be paid with great ease, 
even if largely increased beyond its present rate. To illustrate my 
position by pertinent figures, let me say that the pending bill if 
adopted would add some one hundred and eighteen millions to the 
national debt, or, in other words, it would increase it a trifle more 
than four per cent., and would call for a corresponding increase in 
the amount raised to pay interest. But the immense relief that 
would be experienced throughout the loyal States by the removal of 
these enormous direct taxes would enable them to pay the increased 
excise with comparative ease. And in this way the General Govern- 
ment would have the field to itself, and could regulate its system of 
taxation with far greater efficiency and far greater equity. Compe- 
ting and conflicting systems of taxation can but produce mutual 
injury, and if the power can be' lodged wholly or mainly in one, a 
larger amount of money can be raised with less burden to the people 
than where each is compelled to make the utmost exaction to meet 
the demands upon it. 

If there be any correctness in the view just suggested, the assump- 
tion of the State debts would make a nominal rather than a real 
addition to the national debt. The States and communities which 
owe these debts are precisely the same States and communities upon 
which must rest the maintenance of the national credit during the 
entire period that it may be said to be on trial before the world. 
While this oppressive burden of local indebtedness is upon them, it 
impairs their resources and their ability to carry the national debt by 
even a larger amount. And if the national debt is increased by 
refunding to the States, the local burdens are, to say the least, cor- 
12 



178 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 

relatively and proportionally reduced. This fact is so palpable and 
undeniable that it is only a waste of time to repeat it. Bankers and 
money-lenders would everywhere recognize it ; and the tendency of 
such a policy would be to strengthen the national credit through- 
out the world. The change of securities does not change the amount 
to be raised by taxation, it only simplifies the mode of obtaining it. 
And this phase of the case presents another striking parallel to the 
first assumption as proposed and accomplished by Mr. Hamilton. 
In discussing the identical point to which I have just referred, that 
great master of finance dismissed it summarily with the following 
brief and conclusive comment : 

" Admitting that a provision must be made in some way or other 
for the entire debt, it will certainly follow that no greater revenues 
will be required, whether that provision be made wholly by the 
United States or partly by them and partly by the States separately." 

Another point, Mr. Chairman, in this connection, for the special 
attention of those gentlemen who fear that the adoption of the pend- 
ing measure would injure the national credit. Nothing is so injuri- 
ous to credit as uncertainty. It is the apprehension to-day of what 
our debt may be rather than the knowledge of what it is that pre- 
vents our bonds selling at a premium in gold, both at home and 
abroad. One source of uncertainty is found in this very question of 
the war debts of the States. Will they be assumed, or will they 
not, and if assumed, to what amount? are questions asked at all 
financial centers, with anxious concern. So long as nothing is done 
the worst is feared, and the anticipated amount of assumption will 
expand with the agitation of the question. It is natural to exagger- 
ate the unknown. Omne ignotum 'pro magnijico. "We can put an 
end to injurious surmises as to what may be done, by adopting at 
once the very moderate and well-guarded proposition now under 
discussion. Refusing to pass this bill will not quiet agitation nor 
remove alarm. Agitation will go on and injury to our national 
credit will be the inevitable result. 

Should the policy of assuming these debts be rejected, an act of 
injustice would be done entirely without precedent thus far in the 
dealings between the General Government and the States. The 
strange spectacle would be presented of less than one-third of the 
prospective number of States bearing in its most oppressive form an 
enormous debt, every dollar of which was contracted as much for 
the benefit of the other two thirds of the Union as for themselves. 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 179 

The prejudicial effect which this would have on the States subjected 
to the burden need not be described. It would in a great degree 
cripple their energies and retard their growth, and the climax of its 
baleful influence would be made odiously and cruelly manifest in the 
emigration from the old to the new States, and from the North to 
the South, for the purpose of escaping the very tax which was 
incurred that the new States might be born and that the South might 
be saved from suicide. I could not, by any reasoning, enhance the 
force of such a fact as this, nor strengthen the plea which it makes 
for the equalization of the entire debt created by the war. 

If further argument were needed to show the justice of reimburs- 
ing the States for their advances in support of the war, it would be 
found in the fact that Congress, in devising a system of taxation for 
the Union, has deprived the States of all the means of raising 
money except through the instrumentality of a direct levy on real 
and personal property. Many of the States had previously enjoyed 
the advantage of certain forms of excise, tolls, and other indirect 
taxes, which enabled them to lighten, if not entirely remove, the 
burden of local government. In Massachusetts, I believe, the tax 
derived from the State banks for a long series of years almost sup- 
ported the State government ; and other States had similar sources of 
revenue, if not proportionally so large; but the General Govern- 
ment, through its constitutional right to levy impost and excise, 
has absorbed all the easy and ready available channels of taxation, 
throwing back the States, as I have said, to the severest form of 
raising revenue. It is an inevitable hardship that, for necessary 
local purposes, the States must procure revenue by direct tax, but it 
is a hardship rendered almost unendurable by its injustice when the 
States have in this way to raise a large sum to pay the interest and 
principal of a debt contracted for the good of the whole Union. 
The power to meet the burden having been taken from the States, 
common equity demands that the burden should be taken away also. 

And the burden to which I have just referred, Mr. Chairman, falls 
with increased severity on the farmers and other holders of real 
estate, from the fact that so vast a proportion of the personal prop- 
erty in many communities has sought investment in Government 
securities, which are specially exempt from State and municipal 
taxation. I should certainly be among the last to countenance a 
breach of the national faith in the slightest degree. We must stand 
by the terms "nominated in the bond," no matter how onerous and 



180 PUBLIC SERVICES OE JAMES G. BLAINE. 

oppressive they may be. No hardship can arise to any of us from 
observing good faith on the part of the Government, at all compara- 
ble with the hardship that would ensue to all of us by violating that 
faith even by the remotest hint. But while we all agree, I trust, on 
this point, I submit that as the policy of the Government has made 
the war debt of the States bear unequally on different classes of the 
community, and most oppressively on the specially meritorious class, 
it is the imperative duty of the Government to equalize the burden 
by assuming an equitable share of the debt. 

I am not willing, Mr. Chairman, to be understood as making in 
these remarks a supplicating appeal for relief on behalf of my own 
State, or the other loyal Commonwealths that have "borne the heat 
and burden of the day" throughout the great contest that has 
resulted so auspiciously for all the interests of humanity. Supplica- 
tion is the language of those who have no right to use a stronger 
phrase. But standing here to-day as one of the Kepresentatives of 
the people, I have a right to demand that equal and exact justice be 
done to all the States of the Union, and that the Government of the 
Union should without cavil or hesitation pay the debts which were 
contracted on its own account and for its own benefit. Justice is all 
that the loyal States ask, and in the grand language of Mr. Hamil- 
ton, already quoted, "justice is not completely fulfilled until the 
entire debt of every State contracted in relation to the war is em- 
braced in one general and comprehensive plan of payment." 

In a speech delivered the 7th of March, 1868, Mr. Blaine discussed 
the subject of the currency in connection with the finances of the 
country. A statement had been made that the Republican party, or 
the Republican leaders, designed to pay the five-twenty bonds in 
gold. This statement he refuted. As none of those bonds were due 
and payable previous to the year 1882, he counseled delay, and upon 
the ground that long before that time the United States notes would 
be as valuable as coin, and that the bonds would be paid in the cur- 
rency then used in business. But he denounced the scheme of pay- 
ing the bonds in greenbacks. These are his words : 

"Does any sane man doubt that the inflation of the currency 
would speedily result in its depreciation? If so, he shuts his eyes to 
the prominent facts of history, to our own experience as a nation, 
and to the plainest deductions of common sense. An excess of irre- 
deemable money at once raises the price of all commodities necessary 
for daily consumption. Clothing becomes higher and food becomes 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES Q. BLAINE. 181 

higher, without a corresponding increase of those of limited means 
to purchase these articles. The rich can stand it, but what would 
become of the poor? The man who lives by his daily toil would find 
the necessaries of life run up in price far beyond any increase he 
could hope to secure for his labor; and it would soon become a 
struggle for existence with him and his family. I do not think any 
imagination can picture or foretell the misery that would be in- 
flicted on this country if the currency should be inflated to the extent 
necessary to pay the five-twenties in greenbacks, as advocated by the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler), and the gentleman from 
Ohio, not now a member of this House (Mr. Pendleton). And in 
this connection I desire further to say that it is an immense delusion 
to attribute any of the dullness now prevalent in business circles to a 
scarcity of money. "We have over seven hundred million dollars of 
paper money now in circulation — nearly three times as much as the 
entire bank circulation of the United States prior to 1861, while it is 
quite notorious that the money markets in our business centers were 
rarely known to be easier, or more abundantly supplied than during 
the whole of this winter. Moreover, business of all kinds in France 
and England at this time is far duller than with us ; and yet in both 
these countries the plethora of money is in excess of what was ever 
known before. The Bank of France alone holds a surplus of $200,- 
000,000, and a corresponding amount is held in the Bank of England, 
and by the large banking-houses at Frankf ort-on-the-Main. In view 
of these facts, it seems to me that no delusion is so absurd as to 
suppose that any relief could come from an inflation of the currency. 
Misery, wide-spread and hopeless, would be its only and inevitable 
result. 

"Nor do I see how any gentleman can consistently propose an 
inflation of the currency in the face of an express and solemn pledge 
to the contrary by Congress. When the Government was very hard 
pressed for money, and when the great fear was that our whole 
financial fabric, like the continental system of our Revolutionary 
ancestors, might be utterly and hopelessly ruined by a deluge of 
paper money, Congress, by deliberate enactment of June 30, 1864, 
pledged to all the public creditors that ' the total amount of treasury 
notes issued or to be issued should never exceed $400,000,000.' We 
are now within $40,000,000 of that amount, and if we were ever so 
eager to pay off our five-twenties in greenbacks, we are absolutely 
estopped by the $400,000,000 pledge. If we disregard that pledge 



182 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 

we might as well trample on others, and take a short cut at once to 
repudiation and national bankruptcy. A government that will disre- 
gard one solemn pledge cannot expect to be trusted on other pledges." 

That Mr. Blaine possessed the full confidence of President Gar- 
field there can be no doubt. Their relations were not official merely; 
they were bound to each other by the ties of sincere friendship. Mr. 
Blaine's eulogy on President Garfield was received by the country as 
the tribute of a friend ; but it was received also as a wise and just 
analysis of the President's character and career. Only a friend could 
have written the closing passages of the eulogy : 

" On the morning of July 2d, the President was a contented and 
happy man— not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly 
happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove 
slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an 
unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his 
talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after 
four months of trial his administration was strong in its grasp of 
affairs, strong in popular favor, and destined to grow stronger ; that 
grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely 
passed; that trouble lay behind him and not before him; that he was 
soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an ill- 
ness which had but lately disquieted, and at times almost unnerved 
him; that he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the most cher- 
ished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings 
with those whose deepening interest had followed every step of his 
upward progress from the day he entered upon his college course 
until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his coun- 
trymen. 

" Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs 
of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may 
well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; 
no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate 
was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, 
confident in the years stretching peacefully out before him ; the next 
he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of tor- 
ture, to silence, and the grave. 

"Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, 
in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand 
of murder, he was thrust from the full-tide of this world's interest, 
from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 183 

of death — and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment 
in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of 
its relinquishment; but through days of deadly languor, through 
weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with 
clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What 
blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell — what 
brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering 
of strong, worn, manhood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet 
household ties! Behind him a proud, expectant nation; a great host 
of sustaining friends ; a cherished and happy mother, wearing the 
full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, 
whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from 
childhood's day of frolic; the fair young daughter; the sturdy sons, 
just springing into closest companionship, claiming every day and 
every day rewarding 1 a father's love and care; and in his heart the 
eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation 
and great darkness! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen 
were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Mas- 
terful in his mortal weakness, he became the center of a nation's love, 
enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the 
sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine- 
press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing 
tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the 
assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation 
he bowed to the Divine decree. 

"As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. 
The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospi- 
tal of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its 
oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. 
Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to 
the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should 
will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold 
voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, 
he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders ; on its 
far sails, whitening in the morning light; on its restless waves, roll- 
ing shoreward to break and die beneath the noon-day sun; on the 
red clouds of evening, arching low to the horizon; on the serene and 
shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read 
a mystic meaning, which only the rapt and parting soul may know. 
Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the 



184 PUBLIC SERVICES OP JAMES G. BLAINE. 

great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his 
wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning." 

Mr. Blaine's leadership on the floor of the House was interrupted 
by his transfer to the Speaker's chair at the commencement of the 
forty-first Congress. He served as Speaker during the forty-first, 
forty-second, and forty -third Congresses. As a presiding officer he 
takes a place in the small class which consists of Mr. Clay, Mr. 
Winthrop, and General Banks. 

During the first session of the forty-fourth Congress, Mr. Blaine 
resigned his seat in the House upon his appointment to the Senate, 
where he served with distinction until he became Secretary of State 
in the administration of President Garfield. 

It is to be said of Mr. Blaine that he has had a long, varied, and 
successful career in public life. He has been connected with both 
houses of Congress, and with the Executive department. If experi- 
ence is of any value, he is well equipped for the duties of President. 

There is a general and aggressive public sentiment which demands 
the retention of experienced officers in all the subordinate places of 
government, and at the same time the country indulges in the illu- 
sion that the chief place of all may be safely filled, or wisely filled, 
by a man who is without experience even in the forms of government. 

The shafts hurled in disappointment, envy, or malice, reach every 
conspicuous station in life. Every representative man is a victim. 
Leadership awakens rivalry, and it implies hostility. 

In this contest the ^Republican party does not seek for success in 
the obscurity of its candidates. It has selected men of large experi- 
ence, of abilities recognized generally, and often tested. 



— ' — 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 



OF the personages of American history, a few only have risen to 
distinction in more than one walk in life. General Logan be- 
longs to the exceptionally small class who have attained eminence, 
a right to he known historically, in more than one department of 
effort and contest. The prizes in war are attractive, and the names 
of those who gain them are known widely. The favor of the multi- 
tude is sure to wait upon the successful soldier. The victories of 
peace are not more easily won than the victories of war ; but when 
won, they do not so readily command the applause of mankind. 

General Logan has been a successful leader in peace and in war. 

It was his fortune to be born into a family of attainments in profes- 
sional and general knowledge, and therefore he enjoyed advantages 
in his childhood and youth that were not common to frontier life in 
America a half a century ago. His mother was of Scottish ancestry, 
and of a family which numbered among its members some who were 
lawyers and others who were entrusted with public duties. His 
father was an Irishman in nationality, and a physician by profession. 
He had the means to command a private tutor for the education of 
his children, and their opportunities for gaining knowledge were 
superior to the opportunities of others in the vicinity. General 
Logan shared and improved these advantages; but he was also 
trained and disciplined for the stern duties of a soldier and a states- 
man as a sharer in the hardships of frontier life. He was prepared 
for the profession of the law by a course of three years at college, 
and by a full course at the Louisville Law School. 

Leaving college in his twentieth year, he volunteered as a private 
in a regiment raised for the Mexican war. He served as a lieutenant 
of Company H, First Illinois Infantry. In Mexico he acquired 
some knowledge of the art of war, some acquaintance with its perils 
and duties, and a speaking knowledge of the Spanish language. 

Upon his return, he was elected clerk of Jackson county in 1849, 

(185) 



186 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 



but he resigned the position that he might pursue his studies in the 
Law Department of the Louisville University. 

He commenced his professional life at Murphysboro', Illinois, in 
partnership with his uncle, Ex-Governor Jenkins. 

The childhood and youth of eminent men are subjects of interest; 
but the events and surroundings of childhood and youth do not 
demonstrate, and usually they do not foreshow the future of the 
man. There are failures in life where the early advantages were 
many; and there have been successes when the early advantages were 
few. The educational advantages enjoyed and improved by General 
Logan were greater than were possessed by Washington, Jackson, 
Harrison, Taylor, or Lincoln. The fact that General Logan en- 
joyed the means for acquiring knowledge does not demonstrate his 
fitness for public employment ; but he is not to be excluded from the 
roll of soldiers and statesmen upon the ground that he did not have 
the benefit of teachers or schools, or that he neglected to improve 
his opportunities. 

The fastidiousness in politics of men who are mere scholars, and 
the claim indirectly made that the country should be governed by 
scholars, will yet receive a rebuke at the hands of the people. 
There is a general opinion that the means of education should be 
furnished to all the children and youth of the country, but there is 
an opinion equally general and equally sound that mere scholarship 
is not a guarantee for wisdom in the administration of governments. 

In 1852 General Logan was elected to the House of Representa- 
tives of the State of Illinois. His legal attainments were recognized, 
especially in criminal jurisprudence ; and upon the expiration of his 
term of service in the Legislature he was chosen prosecuting attor- 
ney for the judicial district in which he resided. 

In 1858, at the age of thirty-two, General Logan was elected a 
Representative in the Thirty-sixth Congress. He was a Democrat — a 
Douglas Democrat — and his majority was greater than any Demo- 
cratic majority previously given in the district. 

At the session of December, 1860, General Logan supported the 
" Crittenden Compromise," and he strove to avert a war, but always 
as a Union man. He voted for the resolution approving the Presi- 
dent's action in support of the laws and for the preservation of the 
Union. In December, 1860, he voted for a resolution introduced by 
Mr. Morris, his colleague. That resolution was in these words: 

"Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we are unalterably 



PUBLIC SEBVICES OP JOHN A. LOGAN. 187 

and immovably attached to the Union of the States ; that we recog- 
nize in that union the primary cause of our present greatness and 
prosperity as a nation ; that we have yet seen nothing, either in the 
election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, 
or from any other source, to justify its dissolution, and that we 
pledge to each other ' our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honors ' 
to maintain it." 

This vote should end all controversy as to General Logan's position 
upon the subject, and it should silence the groundless calumny that he 
had any sympathy, even the least, either with the Secessionists or with 
the doctrines of secession. While he was yet a member of the House 
of Representatives he carried a musket and served as a private soldier 
in the first battle of Bull Run. Thus at an early day he redeemed 
the pledge that he had given by his vote in favor of the Morris 
resolution. 

A majority of General Logan's constituents were immigrants from 
the Slave States, or descendants of immigrants from those States, and 
the weight of public sentiment was in favor of the South. This 
sentiment General Logan met and overcame by his personal influence 
and by public addresses. Upon his return to his district in the early 
summer of 1861, threats of personal violence were made frequently; 
but in a series of speeches he accomplished two important results. He 
recruited a regiment, the Thirty-first Illinois, and he changed the 
public sentiment of the district. 

Then and thus his career as a soldier began. His first experience 
was at Belmont, where his horse was shot under him, and his pistol 
at his side was shattered by a shot from the enemy. The official re- 
port says, "Colonel Logan's admirable tactics not only foiled the 
frequent attempts of the enemy to flank him, but secured a steady 
advance towards the enemy's camp." 

This was the beginning of the verification of the prophecy that he 
made when he canvassed his district for the Union and for a regi- 
ment of volunteers : ' ' Should the free navigation of the Mississippi 
river be obstructed by force, the men of the West will hew their way 
through human gore to the Gulf of Mexico." 

Logan's regiment formed a part of the expedition against Forts 
Henry and Donelson. He was the first to enter Fort Henry, and in 
command of a cavalry force he captured eight guns. These forts, 
and especially Donelson, constituted the defense of Nashville. The 
siege of Donelson lasted three days. Logan's regiment suffered 



188 PUBLIC SERVICES OP JOHN A. LOGAN. 

severely. Of 606 men who were engaged in the battle 303 were 
killed or wounded. Logan received three wounds so severe that his 
life was in peril, and yet he continued in command until from loss 
of blood he was unable to stand. 

General McClernand says: "Schwartz's battery being left unsup- 
ported by the retirement of the 29th, the 31st boldly rushed to its 
defense, and at the same moment received the combined attack of the 
forces on the right and of others in front, supposed to have been led 
by General Buckner. The danger was imminent, and calling for a 
change of disposition adapted to meet it, which Colonel Logan made 
by forming the right wing of his battalion at an angle with the left. 
In this order he supported the battery, which continued to play upon 
the enemy and held him in check until his regiment's supply of am- 
munition was entirely exhausted." 

Colonel Oglesby of the 8th Illinois, commanding the First Brigade> 
says in his report of the battle : ' ' Turning to the 31st, which yet held 
its place in line, I ordered Colonel Logan to throw back his right, so 
as to form a crochet on the right of the 11th Illinois. In this way 
Colonel Logan held in check the advancing foe for some time under 
the most destructive fire, whilst I endeavored to assist Colonel Cruft 
with his brigade in finding a position on the right of the 31st. It was 
now four hours since fighting began in the morning. The cartridge- 
boxes of the 31st were nearly empty. The Colonel had been severely 
wounded, and the Lieutenant-Colonel, John H. White, had, with 
some thirty others, fallen dead on the field and a large number 
wounded. In this condition Colonel Logan brought off the remain- 
der of his regiment in good order." 

General Logan was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General for 
his conduct at the battle of Fort Donelson, and upon the recommen- 
dation of General Grant. Of General Logan and three others he 
says: "They have fully earned their positions on the field of battle." 

After an absence of two months, and before he had recovered from 
his wounds, General Logan took command of his brigade, and was 
engaged in the battle of Corinth, the 28th and the 29th of May, 1862. 
Of his conduct in that contest General Sherman says: "And further 
I feel under special obligations to this officer, General Logan, who, 
during the two days he served under me, held critical ground on my 
right, extending down to the railroad." 

It was at this crisis of affairs, when our arms had met with serious 
reverses in the Peninsula under McClellan, when Pope had been de- 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOIEN" A. LOGAN. 189 

feated before Washington, that the friends of General Lor ;:n solicited 
the use of his name as a candidate for election to the Thirty-eighth 
Congress. A weak man or a timid man might have seized the occa- 
sion to retire from the army without the reproach of resigning in 
the face of the enemy. General Logan declined the opportunit}- in 
a letter filled with patriotic sentiments : 

" In reply, I would most respectfully remind you that a compli- 
ance with your request on my part would be a departure from the 
settled resolution with which I resumed my sword in defense and for 
the perpetuity of a government, the like and blessings of which no 
other nation or age shall enjoy, if once suffered to be weakened or 
destroyed. 

' ' In making this reply, I feel that it is unnecessary to enlarge as 
to what were, or may hereafter be, my political views, but would 
simply state that politics of every grade and character whatsoever 
are now ignored by me, since I am convinced that the Constitution 
and life of this Republic — which I shall never cease to adore — are 
in danger. I express my views and politics when I assert my attach- 
ment for the Union. I have no other politics now, and consequently 

no aspirations for civil place and power I have entered the 

field, to die if need be, for this government, and I never expect to 
return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of preservation 

has become a fact established If the South by her malignant 

treachery has imperiled all that made her great and wealthy, and it 
were to be lost, I would not stretch forth my hand to save her from 
destruction, if she will not be saved by a restoration of the Union." 

To these pledges General Logan was faithful. He returned to 
oeaceful pursuits only when the authority of the Union was reestab- 
lished in every State. 

He was commissioned Major-General of Volunteers, November 29, 
1862, and he and his command were in the advance in all the move- 
ments of the autumn of 1862 and of the winter and spring of 1863, 
which terminated in the fall of Vicksburg, the 4th day of July in that 
year. 

The winter of 1862 and 1863 was a gloomy period in the annals of 
the war. The elections of 1862 had resulted disastrously to the Re- 
publican party. There was discontent in the loyal States, and there 
was discontent in the army. 

In February, 1863, General Logan issued an address to the Seven- 
teenth Army Corps, of which he was then in command : 



190 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 

" My Fellow Soldiers: Debility from recent illness lias prevented 
and still prevents me from appearing amongst you, as has been my 
custom, and is my desire. It is for this cause I deem it mj^ duty to 
communicate with you now, and give you the assurance that your 
General still maintains unshaken confidence in your patriotism, de- 
votion, and in the ultimate success of our glorious cause. I am 
aware that influences of the most discouraging and treasonable char- 
acter, well calculated and designed to render you dissatisfied, have 
recently been brought to bear upon some of you by professed friends. 
Newspapers, containing treasonable articles, artfully falsifying the 
public sentiment at your homes, have been circulated in your camps. 
Intriguing political tricksters, demagogues, and time-servers, whose 
corrupt deeds are but a faint reflex of their more corrupt hearts, 
seem determined to drive our people on to anarchy and destruction. 
They had hoped, by magnifying the reverses of our arms, basely 
misrepresenting the conduct and slandering the character of our 
soldiers in the field, and boldly denouncing the acts of the consti- 
tuted authorities of the Government as unconstitutional usurpations, 
to produce general demoralization in the army, and thereby reap their 
political reward, weaken the cause we have espoused, and aid all 
those arch-traitors of the South to dismember our mighty Republic, 
and trail in the dust the emblem of our national unity, greatness, and 
glory. Let me remind you, my countrymen, that we are soldiers of 
the Federal Union, armed for the preservation of the Federal Consti- 
tution and the maintenance of its laws and authority. Upon your 
faithfulness and devotion, heroism and gallantry, depend its perpe- 
tuity. To us has been committed this sacred inheritance, baptized 
in the blood of our fathers. We are soldiers of a government that 
has always blessed us with prosperity and happiness. It has given 
to every American citizen the largest freedom and the most perfect 
equality of rights and privileges. It has afforded us security in per- 
son and property, and blessed us until, under its beneficent influence, 
we were the proudest nation on earth. 

"We should be united in our efforts to put down a rebellion, that 
now, like an earthquake, rocks the Nation from State to State and 
from center to circumference, and threatens to engulf us all in one 
common ruin, the horrors of which no pen can portray. We have 
solemnly sworn to bear true faith to this Government, preserve its 
Constitution, and defend its glorious flag against all its enemies and 
ppposers. 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JOHN A. LOGAN. 191 

" To our hands has been committed the liberties, the prosperity, and 
happiness of future generations. Shall we betray such a trust? 
Shall the brilliance of your past achievements be dimmed and tar- 
nished by hesitation, discord, and dissension, whilst armed traitors 
menace you in front and unarmed traitors intrigue against jou in the 
rear? We are in no way responsible for any action of the civil authori- 
ties. We constitute the military arm of the Government. That the civil 
power is threatened and attempted to be paralyzed, is the reason for 
resort to the military power. To aid the civil authorities (not to oppose 
or obstruct) in the exercise of their authority is our office ; and shall we 
forget this duty, and stop to wrangle and dispute over this or that 
political act or measure, whilst the country is bleeding at every pore ; 
whilst a fearful wail of anguish, wrung from the heart of a distracted 
people, is borne upon every breeze, and widows and orphans are ap- 
pealing to us to avenge the loss of their loved ones who have fallen 
by our side in defense of the old blood-stained banner, and whilst the 
Temple of Liberty itself is being shaken to its very center by the 
ruthless blows of traitors, who have desecrated our flag, obstructed 
our national highways, destroyed our peace, desolated our firesides, 
and draped thousands of homes in mourning? 

"Let us stand firm at our posts of duty and of honor, yielding a 
cheerful obedience to all orders from our superiors until, by our united 
efforts, the Stars and Stripes shall be planted in every city, town, 
and hamlet of the rebellious States. We can then return to our 
homes, and through the ballot-box peacefully redress all our wrongs, 
if any we have. 

"Whilst I rely upon you with confidence and pride, I blush to 
confess that recently some of those who were once our comrades in 
arms have so far forgotten their honor, their oaths, and their coun- 
try, as to shamefully desert us, and sulkily make their way to 
their homes, where, like culprits, they dare not look an honest man 
in the face. Disgrace and ignominy (if they escape the penalty of the 
law) will not only follow them to their dishonored graves, but will 
stamp their names with infamy to the latest generation. The scorn 
and contempt of every true man will ever follow those base men who, 
forgetful of their oaths, have, like cowardly spaniels, deserted their 
comrades in arms in the face of the foe, and their country in the 
hour of its greatest peril. Every true-hearted father or mother, 
brother, sister, or wife, will spurn the coward who could thus not 
only disgrace himself, but his name and his kindred. An indelible 



193 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 

stamp of infamy should be branded upon bis cbeek, tbat all who look 
upon his vile countenance may feel for him the contempt his cow- 
ardice merits. 

' ' Could I believe that such conduct found either justification or 
excuse in your hearts, or that you would for a moment falter in our 
glorious purpose of saving the nation from threatened wreck and 
hopeless ruin, I would invoke from Deity, as the greatest boon, a com- 
mon grave to save us from such infamy and disgrace. The day is not 
far distant when traitors and cowards, North and South, will cower 
before the indignation of an outraged people. March bravely on ! 
Nerve your strong arms to the task of overthrowing every obstacle in 
the pathway of victory, until, with shouts of triumph, the last gun 
is fired that proclaims us a united people under the old flag and one 
government! Patriot soldiers! this great work accomplished, the 
reward for such services as yours will be realized ! the blessings and 
honors of a grateful people will be yours ! " 

In the style of this address there may be food for critics ; but in 
the purpose and sentiments of the address there is cheer for the 
patriot. It was designed to encourage war-worn veterans, who, after 
two years of service and of peril on many hard-fought fields, had 
not accomplished the great purpose of the war nor demonstrated the 
possibility of success. 

In some States enlistments were discouraged and deserters were 
protected. The efficiency of the army was affected by the opin- 
ions of the troops as to the state of the public sentiment at home. 
General Logan's address was designed to meet the difficulties of the 
situation in a political as well as military point of view. 

General Logan occupied responsible positions and took a leading 
part in all the movements under General Grant, which culminated 
finally in the capture of Vicksburg. The movement down the Mis- 
sissippi river, across the channel, and through the State of Mississippi, 
was the brilliant undertaking of the war, and the most successful 
achievement until the final triumph at Appomattox. It decided the 
fate of Vicksburg, secured the free navigation of the river, and dis- 
sipated every doubt as to the final success of the Union cause. The 
battle of "Champion Hill "was the final and decisive battle of a 
brilliant series, and in that battle General Logan was a conspicuous 
actor. 

"When our troops halted along the slopes of Champion Hill," 
says the Comte de Paris in his History of th-e Civil War in America, 



PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 193 

"the dead and wounded were piled together in such vast numbers, 
that these soldiers, although tried on many a battle-field, called the 
place 'The Hill of Death.'" 

The same eminent and impartial authority says : "The battle of 
Champion Hill, considering the number of troops engaged, could 
not compare with the great conflicts we have already mentioned, but 
it produced results far more important than most of those great heca- 
tombs, like Shiloh, Fail- Oaks, Murfreesborough, Fredericksburg, 
and Chancellorsville, which left the two adversaries fronting each 
other, both unable to resume the fight. It was the most complete de- 
feat tlie Confederates had sustained since the commencement of the war. 
They left on the field of battle from three to four thousand killed and 
wounded, three thousand able-bodied prisoners, and thirty pieces of 
artillery. But these figures can convey no idea of the magnitude of 
the check experienced by Pemberton, from which he could not again 
recover This battle was the crowning work of the operations con- 
ducted by Grant with equal audacity and skill since his landing at 
Bruinsburg. In outflanking Pemberton's left, along the slopes of 
Champion Hill, he had completely cut off the latter from all retreat 
north. Notwithstanding the very excusable error he had committed 
in stopping Logan's movement for a short time, the latter had through, 
this maneuver secured victory to the Federal army." 

General Grant, in his report of this battle, uses the following 
language : ' ' Logan rode up at this time, and told me that if Hovey 
could make another dash at the enemy, he could come up from 
where he then was and capture tlie greater part of their force; which sug- 
gestions were acted upon and fully realized." 

The siege of Vicksburg followed. 

" On the morning of the 18th," says the Corate de Paris in his his- 
tory, "Pemberton, with all his troops, shut himself up inside the 
vast fortifications constructed around Vicksburg. His forces, includ- 
ing the sick and a very small number of wounded — for those of 
Champion Hill had all remained on the battle-field — amounted to 

thirty-three thousand men On the morning of the 19th the 

investment of Yicksburg was complete. McClernand on the left, 
McPherson on the center, and Sherman on the right, surrounded the 
place from the Mississippi on the south to the Yazoo on the north. 
Pemberton had abandoned all the outer works without a fight. . . . 
Grant's army, reduced by fighting and rapid marching, did not reach 
forty thousand men." 
13 



194 PUBLIC SERVICES OF JOHN A. LOGAN. 

General Logan's corps was engaged in the two memorable assaults 
on Vicksburg, and portions of Ms command gained and occupied 
positions nearest the lines of the enemy. Upon the surrender, Logan's 
command, with General Grant at the head, was the first to enter the 
city. Says the Comte de Paris: "It had fully deserved this honor." 

General Logan was put in command of the city, and he was at the 
same time the recipient from the Board of Honor of the Seventeenth 
Army Corps of a gold medal, on which were inscribed the names of 
the nine battles in which he had been most distinguished for heroism 
and generalship. 

General Logan spent a portion of the autumn of 1863 in Illinois, 
where, in a series of speeches, he gave efficient support to the admin- 
istration and contributed largely to the successes of the Republican 
party in that year. 

In November, 1863, General Logan succeeded General Sherman as 
commander of the Fifteenth Corps, and from that time forward he 
was engaged conspicuously in all the movements of the army, from 
the capture of Atlanta to the surrender of Johnston. 

General Logan's magnanimity and sense of justice were exhibited 
in his treatment of General Thomas. It is known that in the autumn 
of 1864 General Logan was ordered to Nashville, and to the com- 
mand of the Army of the Cumberland. When he arrived at Louis- 
ville he learned that General Thomas had attacked the enemy. 
Logan telegraphed immediately to General Grant, and suggested that 
Thomas should not be removed. For himself, he asked to be assigned 
to the command of the Fifteenth Army Corps. 

General Logan's farewell address to the Army of the Tennessee 
was dated at Louisville, Kentucky, July 18, 1865. Thereupon he 
resigned his commission and turned to the pursuits of private life. 

His military career was such that the officers of the regular army 
and the graduates of West Point assign him the first place among the 
volunteers. It is difficult to comprehend the reason for the distinc- 
tion indicated by the form of the concessions to the military career 
of General Logan. If in any instance he exhibited a lack of knowl- 
edge, or if his movements had in any case been followed by disaster, 
there would be grounds for qualifying the words of praise used in 
recognition of his services. 

In courage, in the ready command of his resources, in coolness of 
temperament in moments of peril, in ability to inspire confidence and 
arouse the enthusiasm of soldiers, and finally, in the degree of success 
that crowned all his undertakings, he deserved to be classed with the 
most accomplished and most successful generals of the war. 



PUBLIC SERVICES OP JOHN A. LOGAN. 195 

General Logan was elected to the House of Representatives of the 
fortieth and forty-first Congresses. He took part in the most important 
debates, having rank always with the leading members of the House. 
He was one of the managers in the impeachment of President John- 
son. In all cases he sustained the policy of the Republican party in 
the work of reconstruction. 

After four years of faithful and honorable service in the House he 
was elected to the Senate. He took his seat at the opening of the 
forty-second Congress. With the interruption of a term of two 
years he has continued a member of the Senate to the present time. 

General Logan has been distinguished especially, both in the House 
and in the Senate, as the soldiers' friend. He was a witness of the 
hardships and sufferings met and endured by the armies of the 
Union; he was a sharer in the dangers of the war, and he feels, 
naturally, that the gratitude of the country cannot exceed the value 
of the services rendered by those who stood in the hot fire of battle 
for its defense. 

His argument in the Fitz-John Porter case must be accepted as an 
exhaustive array of facts, and a clear presentation of the law. Its 
delivery occupied three whole days. It was not only listened to by 
a full Senate and crowded galleries, but the impression was so strong 
that the bill for the relief of General Porter was abandoned for the 
session. 

There may be differences of opinion as to the merits of the appeal 
made to the country by Fitz-John Porter ; but there can be none as 
to the merits of the argument of General Logan in support of the 
decision rendered more than twenty years ago by a competent mili- 
tary tribunal whose action was approved by President Lincoln. 



The candidates of the Republican party represent the principles of 
the party, and they represent the military spirit of the country. Not 
the spirit of war. There is neither the wish nor the purpose to 
engage in new military undertakings ; but there is in the Republican 
party an earnest wish and a fixed purpose to guard, protect and sup- 
port in comfort the survivors of the armies by whose valor and sacri- 
fices the Union was restored. There is neither arrogance nor injustice 
in the claim that the Republican party is the safer custodian of that 
duty. 

The candidates of the Republican party are men of large experi- 
ence in the affairs of the government. In the subordinate places of 
duty and trust the claim is made, and with good reasons, that ex- 
perienced men should be preferred. Can it then be wise to bestow 
the #hief posts of trusts and power and duty upon men without 
experience? 



^ RECEIVED. * 



^braSS 



INDEX. 



Page. 
Acquisition of the territory of Texas gave fresh conse- 
quence to slavery, ... .16 
Act for the admission of Maine was approved March 3, 

1820, 14 

was passed for the admission of Missouri as a State 
March 6, 1820, 14 

of March 6, 1820, prohibited slavery in that part 
of the original territory of Louisiana north of 
parallel 36° 30', excepting in the State of Missouri, 14 

approved February 8, 1861, authorized a loan of 
twenty-five million dollars, . . .65, 66 

approved March 2, 1861, increased the duties upon 
many articles of merchandise, ... 67 

authorizing the issue of United States notes and 
for funding the public debt, was approved Feb- 
ruary 25, 1862, . . . . . 68 

of February 25, 1862, provisions of, relating to 
United States notes, issue of bonds, sinking 
fund, etc., ...... 68 

establishing a national bank currency was approved 
February 25, 1863, ..... 69 

establishing national banks, its provisions, and the 
advantages derived therefrom, ... 69 

of February 25, 1862, does not permit the issue of 
United States notes except upon the pledge of 
redemption in coin, .... 70 

to strengthen the public credit, approved March 18, 
1869, was the first legislative act of the Forty- 
first Congress, ..... 71 

approved March 18, 1869, provided for the pay- 
ment in coin of all obligations, unless it was 
otherwise provided in said obligations, . . 71 

to authorize the refunding of the national debt, 
was approved July 14, 1870, ... 72 

Acts of March 2, 1861, August 5, 1861, July 14, 1862, and 
June 30, 1864, were for providing revenues upon 
a war basis, and for protection, , , 67, 68 

(i) 



11 INDEX. 

Acts of 1816, 1828, and 1842, gave temporary encour- 
agement to manufacturing industries, . . 77 
Abolition views of President Lincoln in 1862, . . 42 
Administration of Government, injustice still exists in the, 10 
of President Pierce, and the country were involved 

in the horrors of civil war in Kansas, . . 20 

of Mr. Tyler was controlled by the leaders of the 

Democratic party, in a large degree, . . 95 

as a measure of that of Mr. Lincoln, the national 
bank system was adopted, but it was opposed by 
the Democratic members of both houses of Con- 
gress, ...... 96 

Africa, negroes found on slave-trading vessels after 1819 to 

be returned to, .... 12 

the return to of captured negroes may have been 

just, but it was politic for the border Slave States, 13 

Virginia and other border Slave States were willing 
that negroes found on slave-trading vessels should 
be returned to, .... 13 

Agricultural Colleges, veto of grant to, ... 89 

grants of lands to, .... . 88 

Allegiance, choice of, ..... 92 

Amalgamation, one of the fruits of slavery, . . 8 

Amendments to the Constitution were adopted by the Re- 
publican party, ..... 24 

each of the three was opposed by the Democratic 
party, but it has been compelled to accept and 
endorse them, ..... 96 

America, had only three cotton spinning mills in 1800, . 11 

Annexation of Texas inured to the advantage of freedom, q 

of Texas was the policy of Southern statesmen, . 15 

of Texas was opposed by the Whig party of the 

North, ...... 15 

of Texas, Mr. Polk's election was considered an 

endorsement of the scheme for, . . .15, 16 

of Texas, Congress provided for by a joint resolu- 
tion approved March 1, 1845, ... 16 
by it the United States accepted the controversy 
and the war then existing between Texas and 
Mexico, ...... 16 

of Texas in 1845, was dictated by the Democratic 
leaders of the South, .... 95 

of Texas, has inured to the benefit of the country, 
but the scheme was designed for the advantage 
of slavery, ...... 95 

Arbitration, policy of, ..... 110 

Arkansas, was admitted into the Union in 1836, . . 14 

Army, of Gen. Taylor was first termed, of observation, 

then of occupation, and finally of invasion, . 16 

of the United States, condition of in 1864, . . 60 



Army was only sufficient for protection against the Indi- 
ans, when the Republican party came to power 
in March, 1861, ..... 64 

could in 1862 he paid and kept in the field only 
by means of the United States notes, . . 70 

Ashley, J. M., motion by in regard to thirteenth amend- 
ment, ...... 45 

Antagonism between slavery and freedom had not taken 
form in the colonial period or in the years of 
confederation, ..... 22 

Bank, the sum in the United States Treasury January 1, 
1861, was inadequate for the safe management 

of a, 65 

Beauregard, attack by, on Fort Sumter, 84 

Bell, John, received thirty-nine electoral votes on a popu- 
lar vote of less than six hundred thousand, in 

1860, 29 

Belmont, August, speech of, at Chicago in 1864, . . 57 

Bidders, the Whig and Democratic parties were, for south- 
ern support, ..... 15 
Bigler, Governor, speech of, at Chicago in 1864, . . 58 
Bill authorizing the issue of treasury notes to the amount 
of ten million dollars, was approved December 

17, 1860, 65 

for the abolition of the slave-trade in the District 
of Columbia was carried under the lead of Mr. 

Clay, 18 

for the surrender of fugitives from slavery, was 

carried under the lead of Mr. Clay, . . 18 

fugitive slave, was the most offensive of the com- 
promise measures of 1850, ... 19 
Bills, it was claimed that those for the organization of Utah 
and New Mexico were an abandonment of the 
principles of the Missouri compromise, . . 20 
Bonds, eighteen million of those authorized by the act of 
February 8, 1861, were sold at an average price 
of 89.03 per cent., ..... 66 
the act authorizing the issue of six per cent. , for the 
issue of United States notes, and for a sinking 
fund, was approved February 25, 1862, . . 68 
of the United States, in March, 1869, were sold at 
eighty-three cents on the dollar, in gold, . 71 
Border States, influence of Confederacy in, . . . 44 
struggle for supremacy in, . . . . 41 
Bounty, of land to soldiers and sailors, ... 85 
Breckinridge, J. C, was the Democratic condidate of the 

South, in 1860, ..... 29 



IV LNDEX. 

Buchanan, President, responsibility of, for the war, . 112 

veto of, on homestead bill, .... 84 

veto of bill making grants of lands to agricultural 
colleges, ...... 89 

effect of his position in promoting secession, . 32 

opinion of in regard to secession, ... 32 

was a minority president, .... 29 

it was a necessity of the situation that the Con- 
federacy should be organized during the admin- 
istration of, . s . . . . 30 

in his message of December, 1860, made such dec- 
larations as justified Mr. Davis and his associates 
in assuming that he would not interfere, etc., . 30 

denied the right of secession as a Constitutional right, 30 

denied the right of the United States Government 

to prevent secession, by force, ... 30 

upon his theory, it was competent for the smallest 

State to declare the Union at an end, . . 30 

upon the admission of, the Union ceased to exist 

on the 17th day of December, 1860, . . 30 

attempted to assert a right of property in the cus- 
tom-houses and forts, which could not be visited 
except as an act of war, .... 30 

according to his own theorv, was, from December 
17, 1860 to March 4, 1861, president of a part 
only of the country, etc. , . . . . 30 

if he had had two years more of official life, the 
Confederacy would have been firmly established, 
and recognized by the leading nations of the 
world, ...... 31 

Business, every branch of would be embarrassed by the 
financial evils that would attend the overthrow 
of the national banking system, ... 98 

periods of depression in, will occur, they are inev- 
itable, ...... 99 

upon the ocean is more perilous, and the returns 
are more uncertain than upon land, . . 81 

Calhoun, John C, the dying speech of was read in the 

Senate March 4, 1850, .... 17 

in his dying speech demanded an amendment to 
the Constitution insuring equality of political 
power to the South, . . . 17 

is believed to have said a few months before his 
death, ' ' Slavery will go down, sir ; it will go 
down in the twinkling of an eye, sir,*' . . 17 

the essay of, on government, contained his plan 
for re-establishing the equilibrium between the 
Free and Slave States, .... 17 

advocated an amendment to the Constitution, 
which should provide for two presidents, one 
from the North and one from the South, . 17 



INDEX. V 

Calhoun, John C, had, before his death, lost faith in the 

permanence of slavery, . . . . 17 

California contained sufficient population for a State, . 16 

most of its area, and the larger part of its inhabi- 
tants were north of the line 36° 30', . . 16 
whether admitted as a Slave or Free State, would 

destroy the equilibrium of power, . . 16 

was presented for admission as a Free State, be- 
cause of the annexation of Texas and the con- 
sequent war with Mexico, .... 17 
the people of, framed a Constitution without the 

authority of Congress, .... 18 
the bill for the admission of, was approved Septem- 
ber 9, 1850, 18 

the real reason for the resistance to her admission 

was the exclusion of slavery, ... 18 

the bill for the admission of, was silent upon the 
subject of slavery, ..... 18 

except for slavery the admission of would have 
been considered separately, ... 18 

Campaign, in this, the question of the equality of rights 

in the South, is the paramount question, . 106 

Candidates, of each party dictated by the South, . . 1 

Captors, of slave-trading vessels after 1819, were required 
to deliver negroes to the President for return to 
Africa, ...... 12 

Census, errors of, in 1860, ..... 91 

in 1850, relative representative power of the Slave 
and Free States, . . . . . 16, 17 

Cession of land to the United States, ... 83 

Chicago, Democratic convention a'., in 1864, . . 57 

Child, followed the condition of the mother, . . 8 

Citizenship, secured by the fourteenth amendment, . . 49 

under our system, government resides in, . . 70, 71 

Citizens, it is not the duty of a government to give employ- 
ment to, . . . . . . 74 

the nation cannot be an indifferent witness of 
thousands of, seeking refuge in those States where 
the equal rights of men are recognized, . . 106 

of the States are citizens of the United States, . 97 

Civilization, that of freedom would have triumphed in the 

end, ....... 21 

Civil Service, it is reasonable to assume that should the 
Democratic party attain power, the law relative 
to, would either be repealed or its purpose avoided, 102, 103 
by whatever of peril it is menaced, is due to the 
fact of a solid South; .... 106 

reform, the Democratic party can make no claim 

to friendship for, ..... 102 

there is a very general opinion in the Republican 
party that there shall be a full and fair trial of 
the undertaking. ..... 102 



VI IKDEX. 

Civil War, the administration of President Pierce, and the 

country were involved in the horrors of, . 20 

the territories were made the theaters of, . . 20 

Clark Thread Company, manufactories of, in Paisley, Scot- 
land, and in Newark, N. J., . . 77, 78, 79 
Clay, Henry, under his lead the five compromise measures 

of 1850 were carried, . . . 18 

made a public surrender of the question of the 
annexation of Texas, .... 15 

was wanting in principle or lacked the courage to 
declare his opinions, etc., .... 15 

may have had misgivings as to slavery, . . 15 

represented the Whig party in the canvass of 1844, 15 

Coin, to the redemption of all paper money in, the Repub- 
lican party is pledged, .... 99 

the act of February 25, 1862, does not permit the 
issue of United States notes, except upon a pledge 
of redemption in, . . . . . 70 

the act approved March 18, 1869, provided for the 
payment in, of all obligations, unless it was 
otherwise provided in said obligations, . . 71 

Colleges, grants to agricultural, . . . 88, 89 

Colonies, of the original, seven had become free and six 

were slave in 1820, ..... 13 

Commerce, is the first and easiest victim of war, . . 75 

Competition of the laborer in another country, . . 76 

Compromise, existed for twenty years between the Free, 
Northern Slave, and Southern Slave States, upon 
the foreign slave trade, . . 12, 13 

Compromises, of and under the Constitution are alike value- 
less, ....... 9 

Confederacy, upon the formation of, the Democratic party 

ceased to exist in the Rebel States, . . 13 

influence of in border States, ... 44 

its condition in 1864, .... 59 

if Jefferson Davis were to become the president of, 
he must surrender his seat in the Senate of the 
United States, . . . . . 29, 30 

if Mr. Buchanan had had two years more of official 
life, would have been firmly established, and 
recognized by the leading nations of the world, 31 

Confederate authorities, commission from, ... 35 

States, overthrow of slavery made possible by, . 38 

Confederation, antagonism between slavery and freedom 
had not taken form in the years of, or during the 
colonial period, ..... 22 

Conflict was inevitable, because of the three provisions in 

the Constitution concerning slavery, . . 9 

when arising upon a topic that engages the thought 
of the majority, they will appropriate either ex- 
isting, or create new parties, etc., . . 9 



INDEX. VH 

Congress denied to alleged fugitives right of trial by jury, 8 

in 1794 passed a penal statute against the exporta- 
tion of slaves, etc., .... 12 

in 1794 passed a penal statute against carrying slaves 
between foreign countries in American vessels, 12 

in 1807 proceeded to enforce the constitutional 
prohibition against the importation of slaves, . 12 

by a joint resolution, offered March 1, 1845, pro- 
vided for the annexation of Texas, . . 16 

the resolution of, guaranteed that not more than 
five States might be formed out of the Territory 
of Texas, ...... 16 

the people of California framed a Constitution 
without the authority of, . . . . 18 

near the close of the thirty -second, a bill was intro- 
duced for the organization of the Territory of 
Nebraska, ...... 19 

at the opening of the thirty-third, President Pierce 
congratulated the country upon the settlement of 
the slavery controversy, .... 20 

the question of slavery or freedom in the Terri- 
tories, that should have been settled by, was the 
cause of a contest of arms, ... 20 

was compelled by the exigencies of the war to as- 
sume jurisdiction of the subject of paper circu- 
lation, . . ... 97 

is composed of representatives of the States an^» 
of the people, ..... 97 

anything in the nature of usurpation is impossible 
with, ...... 97 

the records of, f uly sustain the allegations as to the 
conduct of elections in Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and South Carolina, . . . . 103 

the South gains more than thirty representatives 
in, by the present, basis of representation, and an 
equal number in the electoral colleges, . . 104 

both houses of, have been captured, and the execu- 
tive department has been put in peril, . . 104 

power of, in regard to public lands, . . 84 

refused to pledge the public lands as security for a 

loan, in 1860, ..... 65 

authorized a loan of twenty-five million dollars, by 
an act approved February 8, 1861, . . 65, 66 

at the extra session of, July 4, 1861, the President 
asked for authority to borrow four hundred mil- 
lion dollars, . ... 66 

was left in the control of the Republican party, by 
the secession of States and the resignation of 
Senators and Representatives, ... 67 

the authority of, to provide for the issue of United 
States notes and make them a legal tender, has 
been sustained by the Supreme Court, . . 70 



Vlll INDEX. 

Congress has authority to endow United States notes with 
the legal tender quality or not, under an opinion 
of Chief Justice Marshall, etc. , . . . 70 

the constitutional grant to, to borrow money, in- 
cludes the power to provide for the issue of notes, 
either with or without interest, ... 70 

during the administration of President Johnson, 
the attention of, was directed chiefly to meas- 
ures of reconstruction, and to questions in con- 
troversy between the legislative and executive 
departments of the Government, ... 71 

"An Act to strengthen the public credit " approved 

March 18, 1869, 71 

Constitution, three provisions of which were in conflict 
with the principles of the founders of the North- 
ern States, ...... 7 

the provisions of, designed to protect slavery be- 
came the cause of its destruction, . 7 

by its provisions the foreign slave-trade was toler- 
ated for twenty years, . . . .7 

the provisions of, governing the representation of 
slaves,, etc. , . . . . . 7, 8 

doctrine of obedience to, taught, ... 8 

the North would concede to slavery, what was stip- 
ulated in, ..... . 8 

the compromises of, and under it, are alike value- 
less, ....... 9 

the guarantees of, to slavery, were all temporary, 
etc., ....... 9 

the three provisions therein concerning slavery, 
made a conflict inevitable, . . 9 

has been reformed by the people through the Re- 
publican party, ..... 9 

unjust to assume that the framers of foresaw the 

evils to come from slavery, ... 11 

slavery was imbedded in, ... . 12 

the pro-slavery provisions of, gave rise to the strug- 
gle for an equilibrium of political power, . 13 

the equilibrium between the Free and Slave States 
was destroyed by, . . . . . 14 

required the re-distribution of political power, . 14 

an act was passed March 6, 1820, authorizing the 

inhabitants of Missouri to frame a, . . 14 

Mr. Calhoun, in his dying speech, demanded an 
amendment to, insuring equality of political 
power to the South, .... 17 

Mr. Calhoun, in his Essay on Government, advo- 
cated an amendment to, which should provide 
for two Presidents, etc., .... 17 

was framed by the people of California without 
the authority of Congress, ... 18 



INDEX. IX 

Constitution, the inherent antagonism between slavery and 

freedom was organized and developed under, . 22 

the amendments to, were adopted by the Kepubli- 

can party, ...... 24 

each of the three amendments to, was opposed by 
the Democratic party, but it has been compelled 
to accept and endorse them, ... 96 

within the limits prescribed by, the question 
whether a particular power shall be exercised by 
the General Government, or left to the States, is 
for Congress, ..... 97 

the negro race and many white persons in the 
South are deprived of the privileges and immu- 
nities to which they are entitled under, . . 104 
effect of thirteenth amendment to, . . . 108 
none of the provisions of, have contributed more to 
industrial freedom than that for the protection 
of authors and inventors, .... 75 

Hamilton was an advocate of the British, . . 76 

provision of, in regard to public lands, . . 83 

ratification of fifteenth amendment to, . . 50 

amendments to, the work of the Republican party, 50 

fifteenth amendment of, ... 49 

fourteenth amendment of, . . . . 49 

thirteenth amendment of, ... 45 
thirteenth amendment to, ratification of, . . 45 
at the time of the adoption of, all the territory out- 
side of the thirteen States was dedicated to free- 
dom, 27 

the President took the responsibility of announcing 
that the Government had no power under, to in- 
terfere with secession, .... 30 

Constitutional concessions, effect of, to endow the Slave 

States with unequal political power, . . 9 

effect of, to dethrone the Slave States and leave 
them prostrate, ..... 9 

prohibition, Congress proceeded to enforce, in 1807, 
against the importation of slaves, . . 12 

Contest, bred of slavery, . ... . . 10 

for supremacy began when the leading men discov- 
ered that the equilibrium between the sections 
could not be preserved, .... 14 

of blood occurred in Kansas, ... 25 

Contestants, when a conflict arises that engages their 
thoughts they will appropriate either existing or 
new parties to their service, ... 9 

Controversy, by the annexation of Texas the United States 

accepted, etc., ..... 16 

over the exclusion of slavery from the Territories, 
effects of, 24 



X INDEY. 

Cost of living in 1880 was not greater than in 1860, and the 
wages of the mill operatives were increased in 
that period by twenty per cent. , . . 80 

Cotton, the export of, in 1800 was less than 90,000 bales, . 11 

the raising of, was experimental and unproductive, 11 

no domestic demand for American, in 1790, . 11 

eight bags of American, were seized in Liverpool 
in 1764, 11 

from America, neglected by English spinners in 
1764, who doubted its value, . . . 11 

the culture of, was largely increased by the inven- 
tion of the cotton-gin and press, . . . 11 

the cotton-gin stimulated the growth of, . . 17 

gin, enhanced the wages of labor, and added to the 
comfort of the laboring classes, ... 17 

gin, stimulated the manufacture of cotton goods in 

the North and East, .... 17 

gin, the invention of, stimulated the importation of 
slaves, ...... 11 

gin, stimulated the growth of cotton, . . 17 

gin, the invention of, inaugurated the slave-trade be- 
tween the States of the Potomac and of the Gulf 
of Mexico, and added to their value, . . 11, 17 

invented by Eli Whitney of Westborough, Mass., 11 

press, invented by Jacob Marshall of Lunenburg, 

Mass., ...... 11 

Convention, Democratic, of 1864, .... 52 

Conventions, Democratic State, .... 52 

Country, the South subjected the political organizations of, 

to its will, by threats, etc., ... 19 

the financial and commercial prosperity of, is put 
in jeopardy by the denial of the equality of men, 25 

was invited to the entertainment of civil war in 
Kansas, ...... 25 

the Government of, was in the hands of the Demo- 
cratic party during four of the six Presidential 
terms next preceding the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln, ...... 95 

the annexation of Texas has inured to the benefit 
of, but the scheme was designed for the advant- 
age of slavery, ..... 95 

there is in, a body of men who advocate the issue of 
United States notes without a promise of pay- 
ment in coin, . •. . . . 98, 99 

condition of, when Mr. Lincoln became President, 34 

when measures relating to human rights have been 
been adopted by, the Democratic party has con- 
strained to give them, lately, approval, .' . 96 

an experience of twenty years shows that our sys- 
tem of bank currency has never been excelled in 
this, or any other, ..... 98 



INDEX. XI 

Country, not less than thirty million of the population of 
this, are dependent directly upon labor for 
means of subsistence, . . . . 81 

Credit of the United States was impaired when the Repub- 
lican party came to power in March, 1861, . 64 
the impairment of, was due to the position of the 
Democratic party, in reference to threats and 
doctrines of secession, .... 65 

Culture of cotton was largely increased by the invention of 

the cotton-gin and press, . . . . 11 

Currency, that is constantly increasing in volume as com- 
pared with the increase of wealth, is a sure cause 
of business disaster, .... 99 

in regard to, nothing can be assured of the Demo- 
cratic party, ..... 99 
the power to decide the quantity and quality of, is 
an essential incident of sovereignty, • . . 71 

Customs, the gross receipts from, for the year ending June 
30, 1861, were a trifle less than forty million 
dollars, ...... 68 

the gross receipts from, for the year ending June 
30, 1864, were more than one hundred and two 
million dollars, ..... 68 

Davis, Jefferson, if he were to become the President of the 
Confederacy, he must surrender his seat in the 
United States Senate, . . . 29, 30 

Debt, public, of the United States, .... 110 

public, guaranteed, ..... 49 

was a trifle more than sixty-three million dollars at 
the close of the Mexican war, ... 64 

June 30, 1860, was about two million more than it 
was June 30, 1849, .... 64 

in 1860, was equal only to two dollars for each in- 
habitant, ...... 64 

in 1791, was equal to about twenty dollars for each 
inhabitant, ...... 64 

of the United States, in March, 1869, amounted to 
about two thousand six hundred million dollars, 71 

an act to authorize the refunding of the national, 
was approved July 14, 1870, ... 72 

of the United States, in August, 1865, . . 72 

of the United States, June 30, 1883, . . 72 

more than three hundred and sixty million dollars 
of the interest-bearing, were paid during the first 
term of President Grant's administration, . 72 

Delegates, probable that those to the Constitutional Con- 
vention from both South and North, expected 
the gradual extinction of slavery, . . 11 

Democratic Convention of 1864, . 52 

Convention, platform of 1864, . • 60 



Xll IXDEX. 

Democratic party, hasalways resisted, and often denounced, 
the measures upon which the Republican party 
may now rest its claim for continued confidence, 10 

profited by slavery, and so resisted its overthrow, 10 

now profits by intolerance and persecution, . 10 

now defends intolerance and persecution, . . 10 

yielded itself to the defense of slavery, . . 13 

subordinated its love for the Union to slavery, . 13 

advocated non-interference with slavery by the 

National Government, .... 13 
advocated constitutional protection to slavery, . 13 
abandoned its principles, .... 13 
remained passive in the North, etc. , during the Re- 
bellion, 13, 14 

furnished shelter to Southern sympathizers in the 

North during the Rebellion, . . .13, 14 

ceased to exist in the Rebel States upon the forma- 
tion of the Confederacy, .... 13 

was represented by Mr. Pblk in the canvass of 1844, 15 

achieved an easy victory in 1852, upon the declara- 
tion that the compromise measures of 1850 had 
secured peace, ..... 19 

of the South, the leaders of, were the leaders in 
nullification, ..... 19 

of the North was divided by the repeal of the 

Missouri compromise, .... 23 

maintains the equality of States and denies the 

equality of men, ..... 25 

in power at Washington, gave its influence to mak- 
ing Kansas a Slave State, .... 25 

the Government of the country was in the hands 
of, during four of the six Presidential terms next 
preceding the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, . 95 

the leaders of, upon the death of General Harri- 
son, controlled the administration of Mr. Tyler in 
a large degree, ..... 95 

from 1837 to 1861, there were only temporary inter- 
ruptions in the domination of/ ... 95 
it is no credit to, that a scheme designed to foster 
slavery has been controlled for the advantage of 
freedom, . . . . . . 95 

its doctrine of State rights has become odious to 
the people, . . . . . . 95, 96 

in obedience to the doctrine of State rights, con- 
tinued in a persistent defence of slavery, . 96 
the Southern half of, engaged in rebellion, . 96 
a portion of, in the North, either encouraged or 
tolerated the treasonable conduct of their South- 
ern brethren, ..... 96 

a minority, not exceeding one-fourth of the entire 
organization, united with the Republican party 
during the Rebellion, .... 96 



INDEX. Xill 

Democratic party, not exceeding one-fourth of, contributed 
their full share to the prosecution of the war 
and the destruction of slavery, . . . 96 

if it is to he judged by its record from 1837 to 1861, 
there is no ground for belief that it would meet 
the demands of the present period, . . 96 

when it lost power in 1860, its tariff policy and its 
financial ideas were alike distasteful to the people, 96 

since 1860, has resisted all new measures, and 
more especially those relating to human rights, . 96 

has been constrained to give measures relating to 
human rights tardy approval, after they have 
been adopted by the country, ... 96 

has been found each year giving assent to some 
measure which it had previously condemned, . 96 

has uniformly resisted every new measure when it 
was proposed, ..... 96 

opposed Emancipation, but it has been compelled 
to accept and endorse it, . . . . 96 

opposed each of the three Amendments to the 
Constitution, but it has been compelled to accept 
and endorse them, ..... 96 

opposed the homestead laws, the grants of lands to 
agricultural colleges, and the system of improv- 
ing rivers and harbors, .... 96 

does not now avow its opposition to the home- 
stead laws, the grants of lands to agricultural 
colleges, or to the system of improving rivers 
and harbors, ..... 96 

the opposition of, to the National Bank System, was 
due to its State rights notions, ... 97 

never admitted that a change of policy in regard 
to paper circulation was required, . . 97 

always assumed that the war was unnecessary, and 
consequently that exigencies should not control 
the public policy, ..... 97 

opposed the system of bank currency at the outset, 
and has never exhibited friendship for it, there 
is no violence in assuming that it would willingly 
< see it die, ...... 98 

either members of, or closely allied with, is the 
class of financiers who believe that the govern- 
ment can extemporize wealth, ... 99 

offers no assurance in regard to the currency, . 99 

the policy of, in regard to the tariff is either uncer- 
tain or dangerous, ..... 99 

the history of from 1837 to 1860, would lead to the 
conclusion that it would favor free trade as a 
principle, ...... 99 

the history of from 1837 to 1860, would lead to the 
conclusion that it would favor a tariff for reve- 
nue only, as a wise application, etc., . . 99, 100 

14 



INDEX. 



Democratic party, the history of, and its traditions, found 

expression in the platform of 1880, . . 100 

the organization of, is hostile to the system of pro- 
tection, ...... 102 

can make no claim to friendship for Civil Service 
Reform, ...... 102 

should the, attain power, it is reasonable to assume 
that the existing civil service law would either 
be repealed, or its purpose avoided, . . 102, 103 

the rule of has been perpetuated in South Caro- 
lina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, sometimes by 
force, and sometimes by fraud, . . . 103, 104 

as a national organization, has accepted the re- 
sults of force and fraud in Southern States, . 104 

secured a majority in the United States Senate for 

a time, by means of usurpation in the South, . 104 

has been able to command a majority in the House 
of Representatives during three Congresses, be- 
cause of usurpation in the South, . . 104 

by usurpation in the South has secured advantages 
such as it did not enjoy even in the days of 
slavery, ...... 104 

in the presence of this usurpation the votes of two 
Democrats in South Carolina, have as much 
weight in the government as do those of five 
citizens of New York, etc., . . . 105 

the success of, would perpetuate the wrong in the 

South, for four years at least, . . . 105 

being benefited by the usurpations in the South, 
there is no ground to anticipate any action by 
that party, etc., . . . . . 105 

not a safe custodian of power, . . . Ill 

danger from, . . . . . . 112 

position of in 1864, ..... 112 

its reasons for supporting slavery, ... 51 

its policy in regard to the war and to slavery, . 39 

votes of members of, on Proclamation of Emanci- 
pation, ...... 41 

alliance of, with slaveholders, ... 52 

the impairment of the public credit was due to the 
position of, in reference to the threats and doc- 
trines of Secession, ..... 65 

Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of, transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a dissevered 
Union, ...... 66 

Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of. transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a govern- 
ment in form only, ....". 66 

Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of. transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a govern- 
ment whose treasury was empty, . 66 



INDEX. XV 

Democratic party, Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of, 
transferred to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, 
a government whose credit was broken, . . 66 

Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of, transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a govern- 
ment whose navy was dispersed, ... 66 
Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of, transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a govern- 
ment whose army was weak in numbers, etc. , . 66 
Mr. Buchanan, as the representative of, transferred 
to Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, a govern- 
ment with an impending war, etc., . . 66 
was divided in 1860, . . . . . 29 

as represented by Mr. Breckinridge, was a Seces- 
sion party, ...... 29 

the division of, decided the election in favor of 
Mr. Lincoln in 1860, .... 29 

had it supported Mr. Douglas in good faith in 1860, 

he would probably have been elected, . . 29 

by the aggressive acts of one wing of, and by the 
non-action of the representative of the whole, 
the Union ceased to exist, .... 31 

one wing of, said the Union had no right to exist, 31 

one wing of, said the Union had no right to main- 
tain its existence by force, . . . 31 
the Union was dismembered and surrendered by, . 31 
Democrats, in the House of Representatives, action of, in 

regard to the thirteenth amendment, . . 45 

Department of Education, ..... 90 

Deposits in Savings Banks, the aggregate accumulation of, 

was immensely greater in 1880 than in 1860, . §0 

Dictatorship, advice of McClellan to Mr. Lincoln in regard 

to, 53-54 

Disabilities, under Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, ...... 49 

District of Columbia, no reference to slavery in or in the 
States, was made in the declaration of the Repub- 
lican party of 1856, . . . . 23 

the Republican party was at first divided as to the 

abolition of slavery in, ... 23 

the bill for the abolition of the slave trade in, was 
carried under the lead of Mr. Clay, . . 18 

Disunion, the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, was made 

the pretext for, . . . . . 29 

Dixon, Senator, from Kentucky, gave notice of an amend- 
ment to the Kansas and Nebraska bill abrogating 
the Missouri compromise, .... 20 

Doctrine of obedience to the Constitution was taught, . 8 

the Republican party has identified itself with that 

of protection to domestic labor, . . . 102 

Douglas, Stephen A., the champion of the repeal of the 

Missouri compromise, .... 20 



XVI INDEX. 

Douglas, Stephen A., in the discussion in 1858, attempted in 
vain to prove that Mr. Lincoln was a dis- 
unionist, ...... 26 

an experienced politician and a skillful debater, 27 

had, in 1858, taken a place amongst the able men 
of his time, ..... 27 

Mr. Lincoln's mastery over, was complete, in the 
debate of 1858, 27 

received a million three hundred and seventy-five 
thousand of the popular, but only twelve electo- 
ral votes in 1860, ..... 29 

had the Democratic party supported, in good faith 
in 1860, he would probably have been elected, . 29 

became the responsible author of the repeal of the 

Missouri Compromise, . . . . 20 

Duties, there is a class of, that may be performed by the 
States, if the National Government does not 
assert its better right, .... 97 

customs were increased upon many articles of 
merchandise by an act approved March 2, 1861, "67 

Duty of securing certain conceded rights rests upon the 

Republican party, ..... 10 

to create a nation higher than to shun an evil, . 7 

Education, department of, .... . 90 

grants of public lands for, .... 83 

policy of Republican party in regard to, . . 88 

flection of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, was made the pretext for 

disunion, ...... 29 

Elections of 1862, . . . . . . 38 

of 1864, 45 

if those in the old Slave States were free, and the 
returns honest, the republican party would com- 
mand a large majority, etc., . . . 104, 105 
the records of Congress fully sustain the allegations 
as to the conduct of, in Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and South Carolina, .... 103 

Electoral Colleges, at the close of every decennial period 

there was a new distribution of power in, . 14 

the equilibrium in, and in the House of Represen- 
tatives had been destroyed, ... 17 
the South gains more than thirty votes in, and an 
equal number of representatives in Congress, by 
the new basis of representation, . . . 104 
Elements, four important, to which competition in manu- 
factures relate, . . . . . 101 

Emancipation was opposed by the Democratic party, but 

it has been compelled to accept and endorse it, 96 

action of Republicans in regard to, . * . . 41 

effect of the issue of proclamation of, . . 47 

justified, ...... 40 

efforts of President Lincoln to secure, . . 42 



INDEX 



XV11 



Emancipation, opposition of Democratic party to, . 
proclamation of by Gen. Hunter, . 
revocation of Gen. Hunter's proclamation of, 
views of President Lincoln, .... 
the great event of American history, 
the position of the Republican party as authors of, 
proclamation of, .... 
Emigration, effects of upon Europe, .... 
Encouragement, the tariff acts of 1816, 1828, and 1842, gave 

temporary, to manufacturing industries, 
England, the farmers of, supply the laborers of Birmingham 

and Manchester, ..... 
Enrollment act of 1863, declared unconstitutional by the 

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 
Equality of States, the government has been reconstructed 

upon this principle through the Republican party, 
of men, the government has been reconstructed 

upon this principle through the Republican 

party, ...... 

of all men before the law, has been secured by the 

Republican party, ..... 
of States and of representation in the Senate could 

not be changed, except, etc. , 
the old government recognized that of States, but 

disregarded that of men, .... 
the new government asserts that of men to be the 

only security for that of States, . 
of men is asserted by the Republican party as the 

only sure basis of the equality of States, 
of States is maintained by the Democratic party 

and that of men is denied, 
of States and of men is the sole surviving issue 

born of slavery, ..... 
of States is destroyed by the denial of the right of 

men to vote, ..... 

of rights in the South is the paramount question 

in this campaign, ..... 

Equilibrium of political power had been established in 1820, 

when the leading men discovered that it could not 

be preserved between the sections, the contest 

began, ...... 

between the Free and Slave States was destroyed 

by the Constitution, . . . . 

of States was re-established by the admission of 

Michigan in 1837, . . 

of representation had been destroyed, etc., 
of power would be destroyed whether California 

were admitted as a Free or Slave State, . 
in the House of Representatives and in the Elec- 
toral Colleges had been destroyed, 
the overthrow of between the Free and Slave 
States, was admitted in Mr. Calhoun's dying 

speech, ...... 



38 
42 
42 
43 
46 
46 
38 
109 

77 

76 

55 

9 

9 
10 
14 
24 
24,25 
25 
25 
25 



106 
13 



14 

14 

14, 15 
15 



16 

17 

17 



xviii INDEX. 

Europe, opinions of masses in, in regard to slavery, . 107 

ruling classes, views of , . . . 107 

character of emigrants from, . . . 109 

migration from, effects of, . . . . 109 

public law of, in regard to expatriation, . . 92, 93, 94 

Events, the formation of a new political party is always 

due to, . . . . 22 

rendered the formation of an anti-slavery party 

inevitable, ...... 22 

neither men nor parties are the masters of, . 23 

were the masters of the leaders of the Revolution, 24 
Exclusion of slavery from the territories was the leading 

issue in 1856, ..... 24 

Exigencies of the war compelled Congress to assume juris- 
diction of the subject of paper circulation, . 97 
Expatriation, . . . . . . . 92, 93 

treaties in regard to, . . . . . 93, 94 

Expenses of the government for the year ending June 30, 

1862, ...... 66 

Export of cotton in 1800 was less than 90,000 bales, . 11 

Farmers of England supply the laborers of Birmingham 

and Manchester, ..... 76 

of the United States supply the laborers of Pitts- 
burgh and Lowell, . . . . . 77 

Finance, a new system of, has been created by the Republi- 
can party, ...... 25 

the new policy of, .... 25 

Financial System, by whatever of peril it is menaced, is 

due to the fact of a solid South, . . . 106 

Financiers, the class of who believe that the government 

can extemporize wealth, .... 99 

Florida only remained of slave territory, ... 15 

Force, the legally constituted governments have in some 
instances been overthrown by, or abandoned 
through fear of, . . . . 103 

the government of Mississippi was seized by, in 

1875, 103 

Mr. Buchanan denied the right of the United 

States Government to prevent Secession by, . 31 

one wing of the Democratic party said that the 
Union had no right to maintain its existence by, 31 

Forests, cultivation of, .... . 85 

Forfeiture was imposed by statute of March 2, 1807, upon 

vessels, etc., engaged in the foreign slave-trade, 12 

Framers of the Constitution could not then "adjust the dif- 
ferences between the South and North, . . 7 

France, acquired Louisiana from Spain by treaty in 1763, . 14 

ceded Louisiana to the United States by treaty in 
1803, 14 

Freedman's Bureau aid to schools, .... 90 

Freedom, advanced by the struggles in Kansas, . . 9 



INDEX. XIX 

Freedom, advanced by the Mexican war, ... 9 

the advantage to, by the annexation of Texas, . 9 

the supporters of, and of slavery were invited to a 

contest of arms for the settlement of a question 

that should have been settled by Congress, . 20 

the civilization born of, would have triumphed in 

the end, ...... 21 

and slavery, antagonism between had not taken 

form during the colonial period or in the years of 

confederation, ..... 22 

and slavery, the inherent antagonism between, was 

organized and developed under the Constitution, 22 

and slavery, a struggle for the mastery between, 

went on for seventy years, ... 22 

it is no credit to the Democratic party that a 

scheme has been controlled for the advantage of, 95 

all the territory outside of the thirteen States was 

dedicated to* when the Constitution was adopted, 27 

Free persons, if basis of representation had been limited to, 9 

Free trade and protection were not referred to in the Repub- 

lican platform of 1856, .... 23 

Fugitives from slavery, statutes in relation to, . . 35, 36 

right of trial by jury denied to, . . 8 

slave laws, repeal of, .... 36 

Georgia and South Carolina insisted upon their right to 

continue the foreign slave trade, ... 12 

Government, in its administration injustice still exists, . 10 

was organized by Texas, . . . . 15 

in Texas was composed largely of immigrants from 
the Slave States, . . . . . 15 

Mr. Calhoun's essay on, ... 17 

was reconstructed by the Republican party upon 
the basis of equality of men and of States, . 24 

the new, asserts that the equality of men is the 
only security for the equality of States, . . 24, 25 

the question whether a particular power of, shall be 
exercised by the general, or left to the States, 
is for Congress, ..... 97 

power to furnish a bank currency is now lodged 
with the general, ..... 98 

under the defense offered for the suppression of 

votes, the minority may usurp the, . . 103 

ceases to be one of laws, and becomes one of men, 103 

of an usurping minority runs rapidly into despotic 
sway, ...... 103 

that the majority vote shall be recognized and 
obeyed in, is a vital element in Republican insti- 
tutions, . - . . . . 103 

of Mississippi seized by force in 1875, . . 103 

in a republic, usurpation of, ... 104 



XX INDEX. 

Government, in the presence of usurpation, the votes of 
two Democrats in South Carolina have as much 
weight in, as do those of five citizens of New 
York, etc., ...... 105 

never can the voters of the North enjoy an equality 
of power in, until elections are free in the States 
of the South, ..... 105 

the South has enjoyed the fullest right of repre- 
sentation, but at the same time one-third of its 
inhabitants have been excluded from all part in, 105 

when those of States are seized by force and fraud, 
and an attempt is made upon that of the United 
States, the nation cannot remain indifferent, . 106 

it is not the duty of, to give employment to its cit- 
izens, ...... 74 

the expenses of, for the year ending June 30, 1862, 66 

in 1861 and 1862, loans were made by, at the rate 
of a million dollars a day, and upon moderate 
terms, . . . . . 67 

resides, under our system, in citizenship, . . 70, 71 

under the administration of by the Republican 

party, the Union has been restored, . . 72 

Tinder the administration of by the Republican 
party, the debt has been paid, . . .72, 73 

for the financial successes of, the country is in- 
debted to the Republican party, ... 73 

of the United States, the financial successes of are 
unexampled in the history of the world, . 73 

Mr. Buchanan denied the power of the, to prevent 
secession, by force, .... 30 

Governments, the legally constituted, have, in some instan- 
ces been overthrown, or abandoned through fear 
of force, ...... 103 

Grant, the sinking fund system was not put in operation 

until after the inauguration of , . . . 72 

during the first term of his administration, more 
than three hundred and sixty million dollars 
were applied to the payment of the interest-bear- 
ing debt, ...... 72 

Great Britain, claims in regard to citizenship,, . . 93 

Greatness of the Northwestern States was not foreseen, but 

their coming was anticipated, etc. , . . 15 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, by the treaty of, signed February 2, 
1848, the United States acquired a vast territory 
of Mexico, ...... 16 

the treaty of, caused California to be presented for 
admission as a Free State, .... 17 

Guarantees for slavery, effect of, to dethrone the Slave 

States and leave them prostrate, ... 9 

for slavery, effect of, to endow the Slave States 
with unequal political power, ... 9 

when slavery demanded new ones, neither of the 
existing parties was prepared to resist, . . 9 



INDEX. XXI 

Habits of a people undergo great changes in a period of 

twenty years, . . . . . 80 

Hamilton, stated and argued the advantages of protection 

as well as it can now be stated, ... 76 

was an advocate of the British Constitution, . 76 

Harmony of the Republic disturbed, ... 13 

Harrison, unless his election be an exception, the South 
achieved a victory in every election from 1828 to 
1856 inclusive, ..... 15 

by the death of, in April, 1841, John Tyler suc- 
ceeded to the Presidency, .... 15 
his death in 1841, made the annexation of Texas 

possible during his presidential term, . . 18 

upon the death of, the leaders of the Democratic 
party controlled the administration of Mr. Tyler 
in a large degree, . . . . . 95 

History of a political party furnishes better means for test- 
ing its quality, than can be deduced from its 
platforms or the professions of its leaders, . 95 

of the Democratic party from 1837 to 1860, would 
lead to the conclusion that it would favor free 
trade as a principle, . . . .99, 100 

of the Democratic party, and its traditions, found 

expression in the platform of 1880, . . 100 

of the world furnishes no example for the financial 
successes of the government of the United States, 73 

Holman, Wm. S. , motion of, in regard to Thirteenth Amend- 
ment to Constitution, .... 45 
Homestead bill, veto of, .... 84 
vote on, ...... 84 

of 1860, 84 

Hostilities, demand for cessation of in 1864, . . 60, 61 

House of Representatives, representation of slave popula- 
tion in, ..... . 7 

at the close of every decennial period there was a 

new distribution of power in, . . . 14 

relative strength of South in, from 1810 to 1820, 

showed that it could not maintain its equality, . 14 

the equilibrium of, representation in, had been de- 
stroyed, ...... 15 

the equilibrium in, and in the Electoral Colleges 
has been destroyed, . . . . 17 

the control of, was lost to the South, . . 17 

the Democratic members of, and of the Senate, 
opposed the adoption of the National Bank Sys- 
tem with great unanimity, . . . 96 
the Democratic party has been able to command a 
majority in, . . ... . 104 

state of parties in, in 1863, .... 38 

action of, on Emancipation, ... - 41 

Houses of Congress have both been captured, and the ex- 
ecutive department has been put in peril, . 104 
Hunter, General, proclamation of, in regard to slavery, . 42 



Idleness, owners of slaves lived in, ... 8 

Immigrants, from the Slave States largely composed the 

Government of Texas, .... 15 

from Europe migrated to Free States, . . 17 

Immigration, to the ]S"orth, was encouraged because of the 
increased wages to laborers, brought about indi- 
rectly by the cotton gin, .... 17 

Importation of slaves added to the political power of the 

South, . .... 7, 8 

of slaves was stimulated by the invention of the 
cotton gin, . . . . . 11 

Inauguration of President Lincoln, .... 33 

Independence, Declaration of, its value, ... 46 

Industries of the country, by whatever of peril they are 

menaced, is due to the fact of a solid South, . 106 

so long as we are the most prosperous of the nations, 
in our domestic, our doings upon the ocean will 
be insignificant as compared with our business 
upon land, ...... 82 

Inhabitants, the public debt in 1860, was equal only to two 

dollars for each, ..... 64 

the public debt in 1791, was equal to about twenty 

dollars for each, ..... 64 

of those in the United States in 1880, two million 
seven hundred thousand were employed in man- 
ufactures, ...... 81 

of those in the United States in 1880, more than 
thirteen million were employed in agriculture, 
trade, transportation, mechanics, manufactures, 
and mining, ..... 81 

the number of in the United States in 1880, of the 
age of ten years and upwards, was nearly thirty- 
seven million, ..... 81 

of a portion of Missouri applied for admission into 

the Union as a Slave State, in 1820, . . 14 

Injustice, still exists in the administration of the govern- 
ment, ...... 10 

of slavery, the Democratic party has profited by, 10 

Institutions, vital element of Republican, is the recognition 
of the right of every qualified citizen to vote, 
and have his vote counted, . . . 103 

a vital element in Republican, is in the proposition 
that the government as constituted by the major- 
ity vote, should be recognized and obeyed, . 103 
Interest, an average of between eleven and twelve per cent, 
was paid upon the loan authorized bv the act 
of December 17, 1860, . . . 65 
Internal Revenue, the svstem was established bv the Statute 

of July 1, 1862, . . . . 69 

the receipts from for the year ending June 30, 1863, 69 

the receipts from, for the vear 1865, . . 69 

the total collected under, iip to June 30, 1883, . 69 



INDEX. 



xxiii 



Intervention, foreign, danger from, .... 107 

Intolerance, the Democratic party now profits by, . . 10 

Invasion, the army of, Gen. Taylor finally became one of, . 16 

Invention, of the cotton gin stimulated the importation of 

slaves, ...... 11 

of the cotton gin added to the value of slaves in 

the tobacco and grain sections, ... 11 

of the cotton gin inaugurated the slave trade be- 
tween the States of the Potomac and of the 
Gulf of Mexico, ..... 11 

Inventions, two were made between 1788 and 1800, which 
increased the profits of cotton culture and the 
value of slave labor, . . . . 11 

Inventors, if the results of the protection to were to be de- 
stroyed, the effect would be experienced by every 
family upon the continent, ... 75 

Issue, of United States notes without a promise of pay- 
ment in coin, advocated, . . . 98, 99 
of United States notes is the only financial meas-. 
ure of the war that has been assailed, . . 69, 70 
Issues all are insignificant compared with the systematic 
suppression of the votes of half a million citi- 
zens, ...... 103 



Jackson, Gen., made successful resistance to nullification of 

the laws of the Union in 1832, ... 19 
Jefferson and Washington were advocates of protection to 

domestic labor, ..... 76 

President, member of board of school trustees, . 89 

Johnson, Andrew, vote on homestead bill, ... 84 

the administration of, ... . 71 

Jury, if an alleged fugitive from service had been tried by, 9 
Justice, the cause of is subserved by the spirit of selfish- 
ness, . . . . . . 25 

and peace alike demand the assertion of the doctrine 

of equality of rights in the States of the South, 106 

Kansas, the struggles in, inured to the advantage of free- 
dom, ...... 9 

bill for the organization of , . . . . 20 

the administration of President Pierce and the 
country were involved in the horrors of civil 
war in, . . . . . . 20 

the platform of the Eepublican party of 1856, de- 
manded the admission of, as a Free State, and 
denounced the proceedings there, . . 23 ! 

became the theatre of civil war, upon the reueal of 

the Missouri compromise, . . .' 25 

aid from the South to, 25 

aid from the North to, ... . 25 

contests in, . . . . .4 ^ 

ruffian raids were tolerated, if not encouraged in^ 25 



XXIV 



INDEX. 



Kansas, towns were burned in, ... 25 

hostile legislatures assembled in, . . 25 

antagonizing constitutional conventions met in, . 25 
vain appeals were made for the admission of as a 

State, ...... 25 

the disorders in, strengthened the Republican party, 25 
the admission of, was postponed until January, 

1861, 25 

settlers of, ..... 88 
after the passage of the act for the organization of, 

all territory in the United States was open to 

slavery, ...... 27 

Labor of slaves, the value of, was largely increased by the 

invention of the cotton-gin and press, . . 11 

the United States had no skilled, in 1783, . . 74 

the Republican party has identified itself with the 

doctrine of protection to domestic, . . 25 

the nation cannot be an indifferent witness to the 
disturbance of, caused by the laborers going 
from the States of the South to those of the 
North, . . . . . . 106 

when the demand for, is checked, the demand for 

the products of, diminishes, ... 81 

of the population of this country, not less than 
thirty million are dependent directly upon, for 
means of subsistence, .... 81 

Laborer, the supplies consumed by, are largely obtained 

from the vicinity, ..... 76 

the supplies consumed by, are, in the main, fur- 
nished by the agricultural population, . . 76 
Laborers, the transfer of half a million of, from the mills 
to mining and agriculture, would prostrate our 
entire system of labor, .... 81 

competition of those in other countries, . . 76 

immigration of, to the North, was encouraged be- 
cause of the increased wages, brought about in- 
directly by the cotton-gin, ... 17 
Land exhausted by slavery, . . . . . 8 

because of the attractive opportunities for employ- 
ment upon, the ocean was neglected, upon the 
return of peace, ..... 82 

Lands, public donation of, to agricultural colleges, . 88 

public, revenue from, .... 83 

bounties of, ..... . 85 

mineral, . . . . . . 85, 86 

grants to railways, ..... 85 

preemption of public, , 85 

policy in regard to, . . . • 83 

grants of ,..'...» . 83 

ceded to the United States, .... 83 

slave-owners needed new, .... 8 



INDEX. XXV 

Law, wealth, and theology had combined for the protection 

of slavery, . . . . . 12 

was enacted in Louisiana that negroes delivered 
under the statute of 1807 should be sold as slaves, 12 

Laws, this ceases to be a government of, and becomes one 
men, if the rule of the majority may be over- 
turned whenever the minority is dissatisfied, . 103 
Leaders, of nullification, including Mr. Calhoun, were soon 

restored to public confidence, ... 19 

Leaders of the South knew that when slavery was limited 

to existing territory it would begin to die, . 24 

Lee, General, purpose of Mr. Lincoln, when he crossed the 
Potomac, ...... 

Legislation, prohibiting the exportation of slaves, etc., 

satisfied the North, .... 12 

prohibiting the exportation of slaves, etc., pro- 
moted the interests of the South, . . 12 
Liberty, love of, taught in the schools and churches, . 8 
Lincoln, during the four of the six Presidential terms next 
preceding the inauguration of, the government 
of the country was in the hands of the Demo- 
cratic party, ..... 95 

as a measure of the administration of, the Nation- 
al Bank system was adopted, ... 96 

position of, in regard to the Eebellion, . . 35 

his nomination in 1860 was not accomplished with- 
out a severe contest, .... 28 

the nomination of, in 1860, was made after several 
ballots, ...... 28 

received, in 1860, of the popular vote, one million 
eight hundred and sixty-six thousand, . . 29 

received, in 1860, one hundred and eighty of the 

three hundred and three electoral votes, . . 29 

was elected in 1860 because of the division in the 

Democratic party, ..... 29 

the election of, in 1860, was made the pretext for 

disunion, . - . . . . 29 

to him more than to any one else, the Republican 
party is indebted for its character, its measures, 
and its success, ..... 27 

at every step, tested his acts by the fundamental 
law, 27 

his mastery over Douglas was completed in the 
debate of 1858, ..... 27 

in the debate in 1858, claimed that the ordinance of 
1787 made the institution of slavery local, . 27 

in the debate in 1858, characterized the repeal^ of 
the Missouri compromise a step towards making 
the Union all slave, .... 26 

popular and electoral vote for, in 1860, . . 29 

policy of, in reference to emancipation, . . 43 

President, views of, in regard to Secession, . 33 



XXVI INDEX. 

Lincoln, President, inauguration of , . . . . 32, 33 

the inaugural address of, in 1861, ... 33 

President, character of, ... . 48 

President, his place in history, . . . . 47, 48 

attributes the Rebellion to slavery, ... 43 

views of, in regard to emancipation, . . 43 

Abraham, election of 1864, .... 62 

General McClellan's letter to, of July 7, 1862, . 53 

condition of affairs when Mr. Buchanan transferred 

the government to, ... 66 

Abraham, was nominated for the United States 

Senate, in Illinois, June 17, 1858, . . 26 

Abraham, by his speech accepting the nomination 
for the Senate in 1858, inaugurated a discussion 
which has no equal in American politics, . 26 

Abraham, is the first personage in the history of 

the Republican party, . . . . 27, 28 

Abraham, is the second personage in the history of 
the Republic, ..... 28 

Liverpool, eight bags of American cotton was seized in, 
upon the ground that it could not have been 
raised in America, ..... 11 

Living, the cost of, in 1880 was not greater than in 1860, and 
the wages of the mill operatives were increased 
in that period 20 per cent. , 80 

Loan, Congress refused to pledge the public lands as se- 
curity for, in 1860, .... 65 
an average of between eleven and twelve per cent, 
interest was paid upon other, authorized by the 
act of December 17, 1860, . \ 65 
of twenty -five million dollars was authorized by 

an act approved February 8, 1861, . . 65, 66 

the passage of a law authorizing a new, was rec- 
ommended bv the Secretary of the Treasury in 
December, 1869, etc., .... 71 

authorized by act of June 22, 1860, ... 65 

authorized by act of July 14, 1870, . . .71, 72 

Loans were made by the Government in 1861 and 1862, at 
the rate of a million dollars a day, and upon 
moderate terms, . . . . . 67 

"London Times," quotation from, .... Ill 

Louisiana enacted a law that negroes delivered under the 

statute of 1807 should be sold as slaves, . . 12 

and her associates would have made negroes found 

on slave-trading vessels slaves, . . . 13 

in the territory of, slavery existed, ... 14 

it was claimed that in the territory of, included all 
the country west of the Mississippi, except a 
small region near the Gulf of Mexico, . . 14 

was acquired by France from Spain in 1763, . 14 

was ceded to the United States by France in 1803, 14 

Missouri was formed out of the territory of, 14 



INDEX. XXVli 

Louisiana, all the territory of, was slave when purchased in 

1803, 18 

and South Carolina were seized by representatives 
of the minority party in 1877, ... 103 

Love of oolitical power was an inducement for the exten- 
sion and defense of slavery, . . .11, 12 

Lowell, the farmers of the United States supply the laborers 

of, 76 

Lunenburg, Mass., Jacob Marshall of, invented the cotton- 
press between 1788 and 1800, ... 11 

Lust for gain was an inducement for the extension and de- 
fense of slavery, . . . . . 11, 12 

Maine, the act for the admission of, was approved March 

3, 1820, ... . . 14 

Majority, when the thoughts of, is engaged upon a topic 
over which a conflict arises, the contestants will 
appropriate either existing or new parties to 
their service, ..... 9 

if the rule of, may be overturned whenever the mi- 
nority is dissatisfied, the government ceases to 
be one of laws and becomes one of men, . 103 

if the minority may dispossess, the process may go 
on until a, single person becomes supreme, . 103 

Manufactories of the United States, the operatives in, enjoy 

more of the comforts of life than in 1860, . 79 

Manufacture of cotton goods North and East stimulated 

by the cotton-gin, . . . . 17 

Manufactures, four important elements to which competi- 
tion in, relate — (1) Interest on capital, (2) "Wages 
of the operatives, (3) Perfection of machinery, 
(4) Skill of the operatives and mechanics, . 101 

nearly three thousand million dollars are em- 
barked in, . . . . . . . 102 

about two and three-quarter million operatives are 
employed in, at an annual aggregate of wages of 
nearly one thousand million dollars, . . 102 

at the close of the Revolutionary war, England, 
France, and Holland possessed all the skill, etc., 74 

the product of, aggregated not more than eight 
hundred and fifty -five million dollars in 1860, . 77 

employed 1,311,246 persons in 1860, . . 77 

the product of, aggregated $1,972,755,642 in 1880, 77 

employed 2,732,595 persons in 1880, . . 77 

Manufacturing, the aggregate wages paid to persons em- 
ployed in, in 1880, were one hundred and fifty 
per cent, greater than in 1860, and the increase in 
the number of hands was but one hundred and 
eight per cent. ...... 77 

Market, the Presidency was sold in, . . . . 15 

Marshall, Jacob, of Lunenburg, in Worcester County, 
Mass., invented the cotton-press between 1788 
and 1800, ...... 11 



Marshals, instructions to, in regard to valuation in 1860, . 91 

Mason, James M., of Virginia, read Mr. Calhoun's dying 

speech in the Senate, March 4, 1850, . . 17 

Massachusetts, population of, .... 108, 109 

property of, in 1860 and 1880, ... 92 

McClellan, opinions of, in regard to enrollment act, . 56, 57 

head of the army, ..... 53 

letter of, to President Lincoln, July 7, 1862, . 53 

Measures, of which the Republican party majr boast, have 
all been resisted and often denounced by the 
Democratic party, . . . . ' . 10, 96 

the five compromise of 1850, were carried under 
the lead of Mr. Clay, .... 18 

of compromise of 1850, it was understood were 
opposed by General Taylor, ... 19 

of compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave bill was 
the most offensive, .... 19 

when those relating to human rights have been 
adopted by the country, the Democratic party 
has been constrained to give them tardy ap- 
proval, ...... 96 

Men, the equality of all before the law has been secured by 

the Republican party, .... 19 

the formation of a new political party is not due 
to the schemes of, but always to events, . . 22 

upon the basis of the equality of, and of the equal- 
ity of States, the government was reconstructed 
by the Republican party, .... 24 

the new government asserts that the equality of, 
is the only security for the equality of States, . 24, 25 

the equality of, is denied by the Democratic party, 
and the equality of States maintained, . . 25 

the equality of, is asserted by the Republican 
party as the only sure basis of the equality of 
States, ...... 25 

the question of the equality of, is the only surviv- 
ing issue born of slavery, .... 25 

probably more than one-half million of, are de- 
prived of their right to vote in the Slave States, 
either by force of by fraud, ... 25 

the denial of the equality of, destroys the equality 
of States, ...... 25 

the denial of the equality of, puts in jeopardy the 
financial and economical prosperity of the coun- 
try, ....... 25 

and money were sent from the South into Kansas, 
to make it a Slave State, .... 25 

and money were sent from the North into Kansas, 
to make it a Free State, .... 25 

this government ceases to be one of laws and be- 
comes one of, if the rule of the majority may be 
overturned whenever the minority is dissatisfied, 103 



INDEX. XXIX 

Men, the remedy against the systematized scheme to de- 
stroy the equality of, and the equality of the 
States, is with the Republican party, . . 106 

Merchandise, duties were increased upon many articles of, 

by an act approved March 2, 1861, . . 67 

Message of the President of December, 1860, justified Mr. 
Davis and his associates in assuming that he 
would not interfere, etc., .... 30 

Mexican war inured to the advantage of freedom, . . 9 

at the close of, the public debt was a trifle more 

than sixty-three million dollars, ... 64 

Mexico, Texas declared its independence of, . . 15 

claimed the territory between the Rio Grande and 

the Nueces, ..... 16 

the war with, opened in May, 1846, . . 16 

the capture of the City of, by General Scott, ended 
the war, ...... 16 

all the territory acquired of, was free, . . 18 

the vast territory from, has inured to the benefit 
of the country, but was designed for the advan- 
tage of slavery, ..... 95 

Michigan was admitted into the Union in 1837, . . 14, 15 

Migration, incentives to, .... . 86 

reasons for, ...... 108 

Mills, only three for cotton-spinning in America in 1800, . 11 

Minority of the Democratic party not exceeding one-fourth 
of the entire organization, united with the Re- 
publican party during the Rebellion, . . 96 
the government of an usurping, runs rapidly into 
despotic sway, ..... 103 

States have been held by, through fear and force, 

having been seized by usurpation, . . 104 

a solid South means the rule of, etc. , . . 106 

the Republican party should stake everything 
upon the effort to redeem its supporters and allies 
in the South from the domination of, . . 106 

the rule of, must be destroyed, or the Republican 
idea will disappear in the South, or the down- 
trodden will rise in arms, etc., . . . 106 
Mississippi, the government of, was seized by force in 1875, 103 
valley of, north of the Ohio and Missouri, taken 
possession of by the North, ... 8 
Missouri compromise, Senator Dixon of Kentucky gave no- 
tice of an amendment to the Kansas and Nebras- 
ka bill, abrogating the, .... 20 

Senator Douglas adopted the suggestion for the 
abrogation of, .... . 20 

Mr. Douglas was the champion cf the repeal of, . 20 

the repeal of, precipitated a contest of arms be- 
tween the two forms of civilization, . . 21 
the words of repeal, ..... 21 

the far-reaching results of the repeal of, . . 21 

15 



XXX INDEX. 

Missouri, upon the repeal of, the Democratic party of the 

North was divided, .... 23 

after the repeal of, the Whig party as a national 
organization, ceased to exist, ... 23 

upon the repeal of, Kansas became the theater of 

civil war, ...... 25 

Mr. Lincoln, in the debate of 1858, characterized 
the repeal of, as a step toward making the Union 
all slave, . . . . . . 26 

a portion of the territory of, applied for admis- 
sion into the Union as a Slave State in 1820, . 14 

was admitted as a Slave State by the act of 

March 6, 1820, ..... 14 

the territory of, was formed out of that of Louis- 
iana, ...... 14 

Money, the constitutional grant to Congress to borrow, in- 
cludes the power to provide for the issue of 
notes, either with or without interest, . . - 70 

the power to borrow, and to levy taxes is supreme, 
and essential to national existence, . . 70 

Monopoly of slave labor of the northern Slave States, 
Georgia and South Carolina insisted upon con- 
tinuing in foreign slave-trade to check, etc., 12 
Moralists, views of, upon the importation of slaves, . 12 

Name, of the Republican party was only an incident, 22 

Nation, to create a, a higher duty than to shun an evil, 

cannot be an indifferent witness of the flights 

from their homes of thousands of citizens, etc. , 106 

cannot be an indifferent witness to the disturbance 

of labor, caused by laborers going from the 

States of the South, to those of the North, . 106 

cannot remain indifferent, when by force and 

fraud, the governments of States are seized, and 

an attempt is made upon the government of the 

United States, ..... 107 

National Bank currency, the act establishing, approved 

February 25, 1863, .... 69 

National Banks, the act establishing it, its provisions, and 

the advantages derived therefrom, . . 69 

National Government, duty of returning fugitives from 

service imposed upon it, ... 8 

non-interference with slavery by, was the doctrine 

of the Democratic party, . . . . 13 

Naturalization, . . . . . 92, 93 

Navy, scattered when the Republican party came to power 

in March, 1861, ..... 64 

Nebraska, near the close of the Thirty-Second Congress, a 

bill was introduced for the organization of the 

territory of, ..... 19 

Negro, in large portions of the South, his rights to vote 

denied, ...... 24 



INDEX. XXXi 

Negroes, a class of moralists and theologians maintained 
that they were brought into civilization by the 
foreign slave trade, . . . 12 

the statute of March 2, 1807, provided that those 
found on vessels in the slave trade should be 
delivered to the state authorities where such ves- 
sel was bought, ..... 12 

delivered in Louisiana under the statute of 1807, 
sold as slaves, ..... 12 

found on slave-trading vessels, would have been 
made slaves by Louisiana and her associates, . 13 

found on slave-trading vessels, would have been 
made free by New York and her associates, . 13 

rights of, during the war, .... 37 

New Mexico, ceded to the United States by the treaty 

of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848, . 16 

a bill for the organization of the territory of, 
approved the same day as that for the admission 
of California, . . . . 18 

the portion of, north of parallel 36° 30' was pur- 
chased of Texas for ten million dollars, . . 18 

the organization of the territory of, a concession 
to slavery, . . . . . . 18 

and Utah, by the death of President Taylor, were 

surrendered to the chances of slavery, . . 18, 19 

and Utah, bills for the territories of, an abandon- 
ment of the principles of the Missouri compro- 
mise, ...... 20 

a part of, and all of Utah, north of the parallel 

36° 30', 18,20 

New York, and her associates, would have made negroes, 

found on slave-trading vessels, free, . . 13 

and the presidency, Mr. Clay lost by his public 
surrender of the question of the annexation of 
Texas, ...... 15 

statement of prices in leading articles in the market 
of, in 1860 and 1880, .... 80 

Nomination of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, not accomplished 

without a severe contest, .... 28 

Non-interference with slavery by the National Govern- 
ment, the doctrine of the Democratic party, . 13 
North, the educated freemen of, were set off against the 

ignorant, non- voting slaves, ... 8 

rich relatively, ..... 8 

increase of population of, from 1790 to 1860, # . 8 

the moral sentiment of, satisfied by the legislation 
prohibiting the exportation of slaves, etc. , . 12 

the Democratic party of, furnished shelter to 

Southern sympathizers during the rebellion, . 13, 14 

vast waste in, out of which Iowa, Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, Oregon, Kansas, and Nebraska were 
formed, ...... 15 



mam 



XXX11 INDBX. 

North, the Whig party of the, opposed to the annexation 

of Texas, ...... 15 

its excess of population due to superior civiliza- 
tion, ...... 21 

its supremacy in commerce, in manufactures and 
in the industrial arts, due to its superior civili- 
zation, ...... 21 

the Democratic party of, divided by the repeal of 

the Missouri compromise, ... 23 

sent men and money into Kansas, to make it a free 
State, 25 

a portion of the Democratic party in, either encour- 
aged or tolerated the treasonable conduct of their 
Southern brethren, .... 96 

never can the voters of, enjoy an equality of power 
in the government, until elections are free in the 
South, . . ... 105 

Nullification, an attempt at, successfully resisted in 1832, 19 

the leaders of, restored to public confidence, . 19 

the means by which the slaveholders attempted 
to assert their power, .... 19 

the leaders in, the leaders of the Democratic party 

of the South, ..... 19 

Observation, the army of Gen. Taylor first termed one of, 16 

Occupation, the army of Gen. Taylor termed one of, . 16 

Ocean, business upon, more perilous, and returns more 

uncertain than upon land, ... 81 

neglected upon the return of peace, . . 82 

our business upon, insignificant so long as we are 

prosperous in domestic industries, . 82 

Ohio, State of, in 1860, presented Mr. Chase, . . 28 

Operatives, about two and three-quarter million employed 

in manufactures, . . . . . 102 

in the manufactories of the United States enjoy 

more of the comforts of life than in 1860, . 79 

a system which adds twenty per cent, to the wages 
of one class of, affects equally the wages of 
every other class, . . . . 80, 81 

Opinions, Mr. Clay lacked the courage to declare his, or 

was wanting in principle, etc,, ... 15 

of Buchanan harmonized with the purposes of 
secessionists, ...... 30 

Ordinance of secession adopted by the State of South 

Carolina, 17th of December, 1860, . . 30 

Overproduction, in foreign countries, effect of, protective 

duties upon, ... . 101 

Pacific Ocean, the project of a railway commended by 

Republican party of 1856, ... 23 

Parties, the Whig and Democratic, rival bidders for South- 
ern support, . . . . . 15 
how judged, . . . . . . 113 



INDEX. XXX111 

Party, the candidates of each usually dictated by the South, 15 

the formation of a new, . . . . 22 

events rendered the formation of an anti-slavery, 
inevitable, ...... 22 

history of a political, value of, . . . 95 

representatives of the minority, seized South Caro 

lina and Louisiana in 1877, . . . 103 

in the United States most hostile to Great Britain, 
also the one most hostile to protection, . . 76 

Peace and justice alike demanded the assertion of the doc- 
trine of equality of rights in the States of the 
South, . ' . . . . . 106 

upon the return of, ocean neglected, . . {82 

Pendleton, Geo. H., nominated for Vice-President,. . 57 

Pennsylvania, opinion of Supreme Court, in regard to 

Enrollment Act, ..... 55 

the votes of, in the convention of 1860, given for 
Gen. Cameron, ..... 28 

People, through the Republican party, destroyed slavery, 
reformed the Constitution, and reconstructed 
the government, etc., . . . . 9 

the Democratic doctrine of, has become odious to, 95, 96 
when the Democratic party lost power in 1860, its 
tariff policy and its financial ideas were alike 
distasteful to, . . . . 96 

Congress is composed of representatives of, and of 
the States, ...... 97 

the habits of, undergo great changes in a period of 
twenty years, ..... 80 

condition of, in 1860, .... 92 

Persecution, the Democratic party now profits by, and 

defends, . . . . . . 10 

Persons, number pecuniarily interested in slavery, in- 
creased, ...... 7 

Personage, Mr. Lincoln the first, in the history of the 

Republican party, . . . . 27, 28 

second, in the history of the Republic, . . 28 

Philadelphia, platform of 1856 at, . . . . 23, 24 

Pierce, President, at the opening of the Thirty-third Con- 
gress, congratulated the country upon the settle- 
ment of the slavery controversy, . . 20 
Platform, of the Republican party of 1856, condemned 

slavery and polygamy in the territories, . . 23 

commended the project of a railway to the Pacific 

ocean, ...... 23 

commended the improvement of rivers and liar 

bors, ...... 23 

silent on the questions of protection and free trade, 23 

declared that slavery should be prohibited in all 

the territories, North and South, . . 23, 24 

of the Republican party, in 1860, a contrast to 
that of 1S56, . . . . 28 



XXXiv INDEX. 

Policies of finance and protection to domestic labor can 
never be secure until the equality of men is rec- 
ognized, ...... 25 

Policy of President Tyler, directed to the annexation of 

Texas, = ..... 15 

the Democratic party never admitted that a change 

of, was required in regard to paper circulation, 97 

of the Democratic party in regard to the tariff, .. 99 

Political Power, of the South augmented by the importation 

of slaves, ...... 78 

slave owners, needed new States for, . . 8 

slavery would have been without, ... 9 

the love of, an inducement for the extension and 

defense of slavery, , . . 11, 12 

the establishment of an equilibrium of, and the 
tendency to overthrow, caused sectional strug- 
gles, ...... 13 

an equilibrium of, established in 1820, . . 13 

the re-distribution of, required by the Constitution, 14 

Polk, James K., represented the Democratic party in the 

canvass of 1844, . . . . . 15 

an open advocate of the annexation of Texas, . 15 

his election treated as an endorsement of the scheme, 15, 16 
Polygamy, and slavery, in the territories, condemned by 

the Republican party of 1856, . . 23 

Population, dependent directly upon labor for means of 

subsistence, ..... 81 

of the North, increase of, from 1790 to 1860, . 8 

the increase of, not controlled by statutes, . 14 

the larger part of, in California, north of the line 

36° 30', 16 

in California, sufficient for a State, . . 16 

excess of, in the North, due to its superior civili- 
zation, ...... 21 

distribution of, in the United States, .. . 108 

tendency of, to cities, .... 86 

increase of ...... 91 

Power, at the close of every decennial period, anew dis- 
tribution of, in the House of Representatives 
and in the Electoral Colleges, . . .14, 16, 17 

the representative of, Slave to Free States, . 14 

to furnish a bank currency, lodged with general 

government, ..... 98 

to decide the quantity and quality of currency 
an essential incident of sovereignty, . . 77 

Powers, to borrow money and to levy taxes supreme, and 

essential to national existence, ... 70 

Pre-emption laws, ...... 85 

President, and Vice-President, slave power in the election of, 

in 1819 7 

negroes found on slave-traders, were to be delivered 
to, and returned to Africa by, . . . 13 



INDEX. XXXV 

President, asked for authority to borrow four hundred 
million dollars, at the extra session of Congress, 
which began July 4, 1861, .... 66 

the sinking fund system put in operation by, . 72 

the opinions of Buchanan, harmonized with the 
purposes of the Secessionists, ... 30 

announced that the government had no power to 
interfere with Secession, .... 30 

every executive act would require the concurrence 
of both, ...... 17 

Mr. Calhoun advocated having two, one from the 
North and one from the South, with equal 
powers, . . . . . . 17 

Presidency, sold in the market, .... 15 

John Tyler succeeded to, upon the death of Presi- 
dent Harrison, in April, 1841, ... 15 

Mr. Clay lost, by making open surrender on the 
question of the annexation of Texas, . . 15 

Presidential elections in 1876 and 1880 in peril, because of 

usurpation in the South, .... 104 

Presidential election, it was always possible for the slave- 
holding class to decide, .... 15 

Prodigal ways, owners of slaves indulged in, . 8 

Products of labor, the demand for diminishes, when the 

demand for labor itself is checked, . . 81 

Profits of cotton culture and the value of slave labor 
increased by the invention of the cotton-gin and 
press, ...... 11 

Property, valuation of in 1880, . . . 91, 92 

valuation of in 1860, ..... 91 

Mr. Buchanan attempted to assert a right of, in the 
custom-houses and forts, .... 30 

Protection of the Slave States from free negroes by the 

statute of 1807, ..... 12 

and free-trade not referred to in the Republican 
platform of 1856, . . . ... 23 

to domestic labor, the Republican party identified 
itself with the doctrine of, 25 

to domestic labor and the new financial policy can 
never be secure until the equality of man is rec- 
ognized, and enjoyed by the former slaves, . 25 

necessary to guard against over-production in for- 
eign countries, ..... 101 

a "revenue system with incidental" cannot be, 
practically, ...... 101 

there may be a system of, that shall incidentally 

yield a revenue, . . . . ^ . 101 

the Republican party a unit, upon the question of, 102 

the organization of the Democratic part}" hostile to 
the system of, .... 102 

influence of our system upon Europe, . . 108 

position of the Democratic party in reference to, . 113 



XXXVI INDEX. 

Protection, to domestic labor advocated by Washington and 

Jefferson, ...... 76 

the advantages of, cannot be better stated than 
they were by Hamilton, .... 76 

under the system of, only one interest has lan- 
guished, the foreign carrying trade, . . 81 

and revenues upon a war basis, when secured, . 67, 68 

Eaids, by ruffians tolerated, if not encouraged, in Kansas, 25 

Railway, to the Pacific Ocean, the projects for, was com- 
mended in the platform of the Eepublican party 
of 1856, . ..... 23 

Railways, grants to, of lands, .... 83 

Rebellion, organized, etc., ..... 9 

the Southern half of the Democratic party en- 
gaged in, . . . . , 96 

slavery, our chief peril in, . . . . 107 

war of, influence of, upon Europe, . . 109 

supported by slavery, .... 40 

war of, ..... . 59 

condition of the country, at the opening of, . Ill 

Receipts, from Internal Revenue, .... 69 

Reconstruction, of Union, laws of, . . . . 63 

during the administration of President Johnson, 71 

Remedy, no effectual, has yet been applied to the usurpa- 
tions in the South, ..... 105 

is with the Republican party for the protection of 
citizens, against the systematized scheme to de- 
stroy the equality of men, and the equalitv of 
States, ...... 106 

Repeal of the Missouri compromise, Senator Douglas 

became the responsible author of, . . 20 

of the Missouri compromise precipitated the con- 
test of arms between the two forms of civiliza- 
tion, ...... 21 

of the Missouri compromise, the words of, . 21 

of the Missouri compromise, the far-reaching 
results of ...... 21 

of the Missouri compromise divided the Demo- 
cratic party of the North, .... 23 

Representation, of slaves, under the Constitution, . . 78 

if basis of, had been limited to free persons, . 5 

the equilibrium of, in House of Representatives 

destroyed, ...... 15 

Representatives, "of the minority party seized South Caro- 
lina and Louisiana, in 1877, . . . 103 
the South gains more than thirty in Congress, by 
emancipation, and an equal number in the elec- 
toral colleges, ..... 104 

Republic, the harmony of, disturbed by the tendency to the 

overthrow of the equilibrium of political power, 13 

Mr. Lincoln the second personage in the history of, 28 



INDEX. XXXV11 

Republic, in a, there can be no baser political crime than a 
usurpation by which millions of men are robbed 
of their rightful share in the government, . 104 

Republican ideas, dissemination of, . . . . 110 

Republican Party, a necessity, .... 9 

through it the people have destroyed slavery, re- 
formed the Constitution and reconstructed the 
government, etc., ..... 9 

its existence is still a necessity, ... 10 

is alone authorized to speak for, or defend what 
has been accomplished, .... 10 

the measures of which it may boast, and on which 
its claim for public confidence rests, have all 
been resisted and often denounced by the Demo- 
cratic party, . . . . 10 

accepted and continued the great struggle to abol- 
ish unjust features of the Constitution, . . 10 

has made secure the equality of all men before the 
law, ....... 10 

upon it rests the obligation of securing practically 

certain conceded rights, .... 10 

destined to destroy slavery, and preserve the Union, 13 

the anti-slavery sentiment organized in, . . 13 

the child of events, . . . . . - 22 

the name of, an incident, .... 22 

its principles and purposes the vital facts, . . 22 

at first divided as to the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia, .... 23 

there was at first in, a general opposition to inter- 
ference with slavery in the States where it existed, 23 

in its declaration of 1836, no reference made to 
slavery in the States, in the District of Colum- 
bia, or to rendition of fugitives, ... 23 

the platform of, in 1856, demanded the admission of 
Kansas as a free state, and denounced the pro- 
ceedings there, ..... 23 

the platform of, in 1856, condemned slavery and 
polygamy in the territories, . . 23 

commended the project of railway to the Pacific 
Ocean, ...... 23 

commended the improvement of rivers and harbors, 23 

was silent upon the question of protection and free 
trade, . . . . . . 23 

resisted secession, prosecuted the war, overthrew 
slavery, adopted the amendments to the Consti- 
tution, and reconstructed the government, 

asserts the equality of men as the only sure basis 
of the equality of States, .... 

created a new system of finance, 

identified itself with the doctrine of protection 
to domestic labor, , 

strengthened by the disorders in Kansas, . 



xxxviii index. 

Republican party, a minority of the Democratic party, not 
exceeding one-fourth of the entire organization, 

united with, during the Rebellion, . . 96 

pledged to the system of redemption of all paper 
money in coin, ..... 99 

a unit, substantially, upon the question of pro- 
tection, ...... 102 

a very general opinion, that there shall be a full 

and fair trial of the system of civil service reform, 102 

would command a large majority, etc., if the elec- 
tions in the old Slave States "were free, and the 
returns were honest, .... 104, 105 

the remedy is with, for the protection of citizens 
against the systematized scheme to destroy the 
equality of man and the equality of States, . 106 

should stake everything upon the effort to redeem 
its supporters and allies in the South from the 
domination of a minority, . . . 106 

character of, . . . . . . Ill 

its merits in preserving the union, . . . Ill 

responsible for amendments to the constitution, . 50 

its position as an historical party, ... 46 

final policy of, in regard to slavery, . . 40 

early declarations of, in regard to slavery, . . 38 

policy of, in reconstruction, ... 63 

a party of principle, ..... 58 

policy of, ..... . 92 

when it came into power, in March, 1861, condition 

of the country, ..... 64 

the financial policy of, first dictated by the exi- 
gencies of war, but afterwards adapted to the 
conditions of peace, .... 67 

acquired the control of Congress, upon secession 
of States, ...... 67 

under the administration of the government by, 

the Union has been restored, ... 72 

under the administration of the government by, 
the debt has been paid so rapidly that the four 
per cent, bonds have been sold at twenty-five per 
cent, above their par value, . . .72, 73 

the country is indebted to the, for financial suc- 
cesses of the government, .... 73 

Mr. Lincoln aided in the organization of, . . 27 

indebted to Mr. Lincoln, .... 27 

Mr. Lincoln the first personage of its history, . 27, 28 
Mr. Seward recognized as the leader of, in 1860, 28 

by September, I860, was not merely united, but 

firmly compacted, and sustained by its principles, 28 

rendered enthusiastic by the certainty of success, 28 

the platform of, in 1860, in many particulars 

a contrast to that of 1856, ... 28 

the Union re-established by, ... 31 

met the enemy at the point of attack in 1856, . 23 



INDEX. 



XXXIX 



Republicans, opposition of, to emancipation, . . 38 

Resignation of Senators and Representatives, . . 67 

Resistance to the admission of California based upon the 
ground that her people formed a Constitution 
without the authority of Congress, . . 18 

Resolution of March 1, 1845, extended the Missouri com- 
promise line across Texas, ... 16 
Resources, natural, how made valuable, . . . 110 
Revenue from public lands, ..... 83 

there may be a system of protection that shall inci- 
dentally yield, ..... 101 

Revenues, upon a war basis, and protection were secured 
by the acts of March 2, 1861, August 5, 1861, 
July 14, 1862, and June 30, 1864, . . 67, 68 

Revolution, events were the masters of the leaders of, . 24 

Revolutionary War, at the close of. England, France, and 
Holland, possessed all the skill in manufactures, 
etc., ....... 74 

at the close of, the United States had neither capi- 
tal nor skilled labor, .... 74 

Rhode Island, population of, . . . . . 108 

Right to continue the foreign slave-trade insisted upon by 

Georgia and South Carolina, etc., . . 12 

Rights, if there were no remedy for the gross violation of, 
the re-establishment of the Union could be re- 
garded only as a mistake, .... 105 

Rio Grande, named by Texas as its Southern boundary, 16 

Gen. Taylor ordered to the left bank of, . . 16 

Rule of the Democratic party has been perpetuated in 
South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, some- 
times by force and sometimes by fraud, . . 103, 104 
of the minority must be destroyed or the Republi- 
can idea will disappear in the South, or the down- 
trodden will rise in arms, etc., . . . 106 

Savings Banks, the aggregate accumulation of deposits in, 

greater in 1880 than 1860, .... 80 

Scheme, Mr. Calhoun's, for two Presidents designed, mani- 
festly, to effect a dissolution of the Union, . 17 
Schools, influence of free, ..... 88 

established by Freedman's Bureau, ... 90 

in the city of Washington, .... 89 

Scriptures, a class of theologians maintained that slavery 

was not forbidden in, ... . 12 

Secession threatened in Mr. Calhoun's dying "speech, unless 
equality of political power should be given to the 
South, ...... 17 

resisted by the Republican party, ... 24 

promoted by opinions of Mr. Buchanan, . . 32 

to the position of the Democratic party in refer- 
ence to the threats and doctrines of, was due the 
impairment of the public credit, ... 65 



Xl INDEX. 

Secession of States and the resignation of Senators and Rep- 
resentatives, left Congress in the control of the 
Republican party, ..... 67 

Mr. Buchanan denied the right of, as a constitu- 
tional right, ..... 30 

Mr. Buchanan denied the right of the United 

States Government to prevent, by force, . 30 

the ordinance of, adopted by South Carolina the 
17th of December, 1860, .... 30 

Secessionists, the opinions of the President harmonized 

with the purposes of, ... . 30 

Secretary of the Treasury was only able to borrow seven 

million dollars in September, 1860, . . 65 

of the Treasury, in December, 1869, recommended 
the passage of a law authorizing a new loan, etc. , 71 

Selfishness, the spirit of, subservient to the cause of justice, 25 

Senate, the equality of States and of representation in, could 

not be changed, except, etc., ... 14 

the attempt to preserve the equality of the Slave 

States in, intensified the struggle, . . 15 

the Democratic members of, and of the House of 
Representatives, opposed the adoption of the 
National Bank System with great unanimity, . 96 

of the United States controlled by the Demo- 
cratic party for a time, because of usurpation in 
the South, ...... 104 

Sentiment of anti -slavery organized in the Republican party, 13 

Sentiments, bred of slavery, must disappear before the con- 
test will end, ..... 10 

Seward, "William H., the recognized leader of the Repub- 
lican party in 1860, .... 28 

Seymour, Governor, error of, .... 58 

President of Democratic Convention at Chicago, 

1864, 58 

speech of, at Chicago, 1864, .... 58 

Sinking Fund, the act providing for, also for the issue of 
six per cent, bonds, and for the issue of United 
States notes, was approved February 25, 1862, . 68 

. the system was not put in operation until after the 

inauguration of President Grant, . . 72 

Slave-holders, alliance of, with Democratic party, . . 52 

Slave-owners, needed new lands, .... 8 

Slave power, subordination of, to Democratic party, . 39 

its rule in politics, ..... 39 

Slave States, productive power of, in 1860 and 1880, . 92 

the attempt to preserve the equality of, in the Sen- 
ate, intensified the struggle, . . . 15 
Slave-trade, Free and Slave States" did not antagonize each 

other upon the suppression of the foreign, . 12 

if Constitution had abolished instantly, . . 9 

penalties imposed upon vessels, etc." engaged in 
the foreign, by statute of March 2, 18077 . 12 



INDEX. Xli 

Slavery, three provisions of the Constitution relating to, 
convicted with the principles of the founders of 
the Northern States, .... 7 

the advocates of, achieved a victory in the framing 
of the Constitution, .... 7 

extended to new territories, and the number of per- 
sons pecuniarily interested largely increased, . 7 

land exhausted by, .... 8 

tendency to consume, under a system of, . . 8 

hatred of, taught in schools and churches, . . 8 

would have continued for years and perhaps gen- 
erations in the South if, etc., ... 9 

would have been without political power, . . 9 

would have been abolished by the individual ac- 
tion of States, ..... 9 

the guarantees derived from the Constitution were 
all temporary, etc., .... 9 

provisions in the Constitution concerning, made a 
conflict inevitable, ..... 9 

when it demanded new guarantees, neither of the 
existing parties was prepared to resist, . . 9 

has been destroyed by the people through the Re- 
publican party, ..... 9 

the Democratic party has profited by the injustice 
of, 10 

the overthrow of, was resisted by the Democratic 

party, ...... 10 

unjust to assume that the framers of the Constitu- 
tion foresaw the evils to come from, . . 11 

the gradual destruction of, expected b} T the dele- 
gates from both South and North, . . 11 

the extension and defense of, induced by lust for 
gain and love of political power, . . .11, 12 

imbedded in the Constitution, ... 12 

protected by moral, theological, and financial de 
fenses, ...... 12 

protected by law, wealth, and theology combined, 12 

prohibiting the foreign trade in, the only action by 
the government which could or did affect the in- 
stitution, ...... 13 

the Democratic party yielded itself to the defense 

of, and subordinated its love of the Union to, . 13 

neither opposed nor defended by the Whig party, 13 

the destruction of, destined to be accomplished 
by the Republican party, .... 13 

existed in the Territory of Louisiana, . . 14 

prohibited in that part of the original territory 
of Louisiana north of parallel 36°30', by the act 
of March 6, 1820, except in the State of Missouri, 14 

Mr. Polk and Mr. Clay were both in the interest of, 15 

States formed south of 36° 30', might be admitted 
either with or without, .... 16 



xlii INDEX. 

Slavery, prohibited in States formed north of 36° 30', 16 

gained fresh concessions by the acquisition of 
the vast Territory of Texas, ... 16 

contributed to the overthrow of its own power, 17 

wherever it existed manual labor dishonored, . 17 

the exclusion of, the real reason for the resist- 
ance offered to the admission of California, . 18 

the bill for the admission of California silent upon 
the subject, . . . . . 18 

the statutes organizing the territories of Utah and 
New Mexico permitted them to be admitted into 
the Union with or without, as their Constitutions 
might prescribe, ..... 18 

the bill for the surrender of fugitives from, carried 

under the lead of Mr. Clay," ... 18 

the organization of Utah and New Mexico a con- 
cession to, . . . . . . 18 

except for, the admission of California would have 
been considered separately, ... 18 

the Democratic party declared, in 1852, that peace 
upon the subject "of, had been secured by the 
compromise measures of 1850, . . 19 

the power of, compelled President Pierce to violate 
his pledge, ...... 20 

the supporters of, and of freedom, invited to a 

contest of arms, ..... 20 

and freedom, antagonism between, ... 22 

and freedom, a struggle for the mastery between, 
went on for seventy" years, ... 22 

triumphed in the earfy contest, allied with the 

Democratic party, . ... 22 

the Republican party at first divided as to the 

abolition of, in the District of Columbia, . . 23 

no reference to, in the States or in the District of 
Columbia, is made in the declaration of the 
Republican party in 1856, ... 23 

and polygamy in the Territories condemned by the 

platform of the Republican party in 1856, . 23 

the South asserted its right to establish, in all the 

Territories of the Union, .... 23 

the exclusion of, from the Territories, was the 

leading issue in 1856, .... 24 

the controversy over the exclusion of, from the 
Territories, led to secession, war, the abolition 
of slavery, the constitutional amendments, and 
the reconstruction of the government, . . 24 

overthrown by the Republican part}-, . . 24 

the sole surviving issue born of, is that of the 
equality of men and of States, ... 25 

the annexation of Texas, the consequent war with 
Mexico, and the vast acquisitions of territory, 
formed a scheme designed for the advantage of, 95 



INDEX. 



xliii 



Slavery, it is no credit to the Democratic party that a 
scheme designed to foster the institution of, has 
been controlled for the advantage of freedom, . 95 

defense of, by the Democratic party, . . 96 

not exceeding one -fourth of the Democratic party 

contributed to the destruction of, . . 96 

abolition of, in "West Indies, . . . 107 

United States humiliated by, . . . 107 

our peril from, in the Rebellion, . . . 107 

defenders of, . . ■ . . . . 107 

questions growing out of, . . . . 34 

influence of, statute of July, 1862, on, . . 34 

effect of abolition of, on representation, . . 48 

the source of inequality of political power, . 46 

its influence on parties in the North, . . 46 

the effect upon parties of overthrow of, . . 39 

the cause of the war, .... 43 

aid to States for the abolition of, . . 42 

final abolition of, .... 46 

Mr. Lincoln claimed that the ordinance of 1787 
made the institution of, local, ... 27 

after the passage of the act for the organization of 
Kansas, all territory in the United States was 
open to, ..... 27 

Slaves, the number of, augmented by the foreign slave- 
trade, ... 7 
of the South were set off against the freemen of 
the North, ...... 8 

the importation of, stimulated by the invention 

of the cotton-gin, . 11 

the value of, increased in the tobacco and grain 

sections by the invention of the cotton-gin, . 11 

Congress passed a penal statute in 1794 against the 
exportation of, .... 12 

and against their transportation between foreign 

countries, in American vessels, ... 12 

the importation of, insisted upon by Georgia and 

South Carolina to check monopoly, etc., . 12 

the importation of, prohibited by Congress March 

2, 1807, 

emancipated, not citizens, . . . . 48 

agency of in supporting the Rebellion, . . 40 

the value of, had been increased by the cotton-gin, 17 

Solid South, by whatever of peril the civil service, the 

financial system, or the industries of the country 

are menaced, is due to the fact of, . . 106 

means the rule of the minority, etc., . . 106 

South, poor, ....... 8 

government of the country by, ... 8 

the pecuniary interests of, were promoted by the 
legislation prohibiting the exportation of slaves, 12 



Xliv INDEX. 

South, hoped that slave States could be formed from the 
territory south of 36° 30' in set-off to the Free 
States that might be formed north of that line, . 14 

achieved a victory in every presidential election 
from 1828 to 1856, inclusive, unless that of Har- 
rison be an exception, .... 15 

usually dictated the candidates of each party, . 15 

ruled by the slave-holding class, - 15 

received a fresh opportunity by the admission of 

Texas, but fraught with peril, - 16 

the representative power of, broken down, . 17 

control of the House of Representatives, lost to, 17 

Mr. Calhoun, in his dying speech, threatened seces- 
sion unless equality of political power should be 
given to, . ... . . 17 

the demands of, always accompanied by threats of 
dissolution, . . . . . 19 

subjected political organizations to its will, . 19 

asserted its right to establish slavery in all the ter- 
ritories, ...... 23 

in large portions of, the right of the negro to vote 
is practically denied, .... 24 

sent men and money into Kansas, . . . 25 

the Democratic leaders of, dictated the annexation 
of Texas, ...... 85 

the systematic suppression of votes in the States of, 103 

gains more than thirty representatives in Congress 
by the present basis of representation, and an 
equal number n the electoral colleges, . . 104 

by usurpations in, the negro race and many white 
persons are deprived of the privileges and immu- 
nities to which they are entitled, etc., . . 104 
never, until elections are free in the States of, can 
the voters of the JSTorth enjoy an equality of 
power in the government, . . . 105 
has enjoyed the fullest right of representation, but 
at the same time one-third of its inhabitants 
have been excluded from all part in the govern- 
ment, ...... 105 

effects of a free vote and an honest count in the 
States of, . . . . . 106 

the Republican party should take everything upon 
the effort to redeem its supporters and allies in, 
from the domination of a minority, . . 106 

effects of emancipation upon the, . . 47, 48 

elections in, . . . . . . 52 

condition of, in 1864, .... 62 

Mr. Breckinridge the Democratic candidate of, in 

1860, 29 

peace and justice alike demand the assertion of the 

doctrine of equality of rights in the States of, . 106 



mDEx. xlv 

South, no effectual remedy has yet been applied to the 

usurpations in, . . . . 105 

South Carolina insisted upon the right to continue the 

foreign slave trade, .... 12 

seized by representatives of the minority in 1877, 103 

the State of, adopted the ordinance of secession, 30 

Sovereignty, the power to decide the quantity and quality 

of currency, is an essential incident of, . . 71 

Speech, of Mr. Lincoln accepting the nomination for the 

Senate in 1858, inaugurated a discussion that has 

no equal in American politics, ... 26 

State, once a State, always a State, .... 40 

upon Mr. Buchanan's theory it was competent for 

the smallest, to declare the Union at an end, . 30 

State rights, to its notions of, was due the opposition of the 

Democratic party to the National Bank System, 97 

the Democratic doctrine of, has become odious to 

the people, . . . . . 95, 96 

in obedience to the doctrine of, the Democratic 

party continued in the persistent defense of 

slavery, ...... 96 

States, slave-owners needed men, for political power, . 8 

citizens of, are citizens of the United States, . 97 

slavery would have been abolished by the individ- 
ual action of, .... 9 

free and slave, did not antagonize each other upon 

the suppression of the foreign slave trade, . 12 

compromise between, on the slave trade, . . 12, 13 

of the original thirteen, seven had become free and 

six were slave in 1820, .... 13 

eleven were free and eleven slave, in 1820, . 13 

representation in the Senate of, could not be 

changed except by the admission of new ones, etc. , 1 6 

the representative power of slave to free, was, in 

1820, as 88 to 100, 14 

the representative power of slave to free was, in 

1810, as 92 to 100, 14 

the representative power of slave to free was, in 

1800, as 85 to 100, 14 

the representative power of slave to free was, in 

1790, as 87 to 100, 14 

the equilibrium between the free and slave, . 14, 15 

the greatness of the future of, was not foreseen, etc., 15 

apparent that the equality of, could not be main- 
tained, etc., ..... 15 
Congress guaranteed that not more than five might 

be formed out of the territory of Texas, . 16 

formed south of 36° 30' might be admitted either 

slave or free, as their people might desire, . 16 

formed north of 30° 30', slavery was prohibited in, 16 

the annexation of Texas made an open way for 

new slave States, . . . . 16 

16 



Xlvi 4 INDEX. 

States, to be formed from the territory of Texas were to 
be set-off against those to come from the north- 
west, ...... 16 

at the close of the Mexican War the Union was 
composed of fifteen slave and fifteen free, . 16 

the census of 1850 showed the relative representa- 
tive power of slave and free, as 63 to 100, . 16, 17 

the overthrow of equilibrium between the free and 
slave, admitted in Mr. Calhoun's dying speech, . 17 

Mr. Calhoun's plan for re-establishing the equilib- 
rium, ...... 17 

no reference to slavery in. in the declarations of the 
Republican party of 1&56, ... 23 

upon the basis of the equality of, and of the 
equality of men, the Government was recon- 
structed by the Republican party, . . 24 

the old Government recognized the equality of, 
and disregarded the equality of men, . . 24 

the new Government asserts that the equality of, 
can only be secured through the equality of men, 24, 25 

the question of the equality of, and of men, is the 
only surviving issue born of slavery, . . 25 

in the old slave, men are deprived of their right to 

vote, either by force or b} r fraud. . 25 

the equality of, is destroyed by the denial of the 
right of men to vote, .... 22 

there is a class of duties that may be performed 
by, if the National Government does not assert 
its better right, ..... 97 

until 1863, the furnishing of a circulation of paper 
was left to, ..... . 97 

within the limits prescribed by the Constitution, the 
question whether a particular power shall be left 
to, or exercised by the General Government, is 
for Congress, ..... 97 

Congress composed of representatives of, and of 
the people, ...... 97 

have been seized by usurpation, and held by a 

minority, through fear and force, . . 104 

never until elections are free in those of the South, 
can the voters of the North enjoy an equality of 
power in the Government, . . . 105 

seizure of governments of, . . . . 106 

the remedy against the systematized scheme to de- 
stroy the equality of, and the equality of men, . 106 

effects of a free vote in, . . . . 106 

the secession of, .... . 67 

a direct tax upon, ..... 69 

all the territory outside the thirteen original, was 
dedicated to freedom when the Constitution was 
adopted, . . ... 07 



index. xlvii 

States, equality of, ... .63 

eleven voted for Mr. Breckinridge in 1860, . . 29 

Statesmen of the South had as a policy the annexation of 

Texas 15 

Stephens, A. H.,' views of in 1862, . .112 

Sumter, Fort, attacked, ..... 34 

Supplies consumed by the laborer and his family are largely 

obtained in the vicinity, .... 76 

consumed by the laborer, are, in the main, fur- 
nished by the agricultural population, . . 76 

Supremacy, the contest for began when the leading men 
discovered that the equilibrium between the sec- 
tions could not be preserved, ... 16 
in commerce, in manufactures, and in the inventive 
arts was due to the superior civilization of the 
North, 21 

Supreme Court has sustained the authority of Congress to 
provide for the issue of United States notes, and 
to make them a legal tender. ... 70 

Tariff, the policy of the Democratic party in regard to, 

either uncertain or dangerous, ... 89 

bill, the purposes of the authors of are more im- 
portant to understand than are the effects of the 
measure itself, . . . . . 100 

Tax, a direct, upon the State, was provided for by the stat- 
ute of July 1, 1862, .... 69 
Taxes, the power to levy, and to borrow money is supreme, 

and essential to national existence, . . 70 

Taylor, Gen. , ordered to the left bank of the Rio Grande, 16 

opposed to the compromise measures of 1850, . 19 

the death of, in 1850, made it possible to secure 
Utah and New Mexico to the chances of slavery, 18, 19 
Texas, the annexation of inured to the advantage of free- 
dom, ...... 9 

the State of, declared its independence of Mex- 
ico, ....... 15 

called the "Lone Star State," ... 15 

the annexation of, the policy of President Tyler, 15 

Mr. Polk an open advocate of the annexation of, 15 

the annexation of, opposed by the Whig party 
of the North, ..... 15 

Congress provided for the annexation of, by joint 
resolution approved March 1, 1845, . . 16 

the resolution of Congress guaranteed that not 
more than five States might be formed out of the 
territory of, ..... 16 

the annexation of, an open way for new Slave 

States, ...... 16 

the admission of gave the South a fresh opportu- 
nity, but one fraught with peril, ... 16 

named the Rio Grande as its Southern boundary, 16 



xlviii INDEX. 

Texas, by the annexation of, the United States accepted 

the existing controversy and war, . . 16 

the resolution of March 1, 1845, extended the Mis- 
souri compromise line across, . . . 16 
the annexation of, and consequent war with Mex- 
% ico, caused California to be presented for admis- 
sion as a Free State, .... 17 

was paid ten million dollars for the portion of New 
Mexico North of 36° 30', .... 18 

all advantage gained by the extension of the Mis- 
souri compromise line across, was abandoned, . 18 
the annexation of, in 1845, dictated by the 

Democratic leaders of the South, . . 95 

the annexation of, made possible during that 

presidential term, by the death of Harrison, . 18 

capacity of, to support inhabitants, . . . 108 

Theologians, a class of, maintained that bringing negroes 

to this country transferred them into civilization, 12 

a class of, maintained that slavery was not forbid- 
den in the Scriptures, .... 12 

Thirteenth Amendment to Constitution, effect of, . . 108 

Towns burned in Kansas, ..... 25 

Trade, no foreign in American cotton in 1790, . . 11 

in slaves inaugurated between the States of 
the Potomac, and of the Gulf of Mexico by the 
invention of the cotton gin. . . 11 

Virginia and the other border States willing to 
prohibit the foreign in slaves at the earliest 
day, ....... 13 

Traditions, bred of slavery must disappear before the con- 
test will end, ..... 10 

of the Democratic party and its history, found ex- 
pression in the platform of 1880, . . . 100 
Treasury of the United States was empty when the Repub- 
lican party came to power in March, 1861, . 64 
amount in, was inadequate for the safe manage- 
ment of a first-class bank, . • . 65 
Treaty, France ceded Louisiana to the United States by, in 

1803, 14 

of Gaudalupe Hidalgo signed February 2, 1848, 16 

of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, the result of the annexa- 
tion of Texas, and consequent war with Mexico, 
caused California to be presented for admission 
as a Free State, ..... 17 

Trial by jury, denied to alleged fugitives, ... 8 

Tyler, John, was allied to the slave-holding class. . . 15 

succeeded to the presidency upon the death of 
President Harrison in April, 1841, . . 15 

Union, the more perfect, being a necessity, the friends of 
the Constitution could not adjust the differences 
between the South and North, ... 7 



INDEX. 



xlix 



Union, of the nine States admitted into, previous to 1820, 

five were slave and four free, 
the Democratic party subordinated its love of, to 

slavery, ...... 

the preservation of, was destined to be accomplished 

by the Republican party, .... 
Maine applied for admission to, in 1820, 
Arkansas was admitted into, in 1836, 
Michigan was admitted into, in 1837, 
at the close of the Mexican War, composed of 

fifteen Slave and fifteen Free States, 
Mr. Calhoun, by his scheme for two Presidents, 

manifestly designed to effect a dissolution of, . 
resistance to the admission of California into, 
the statutes organizing the Territories of Utah and 

New Mexico permitted them to be admitted into, 

with or without slavery, as their Constitutions 

might prescribe, ..... 
threats of dissolution of, . 
nullification of the laws of, successfully resisted 

in 1832, 

the South asserted its right to establish slavery in 

all the territories of, ... 

vain appeals for the admission of Kansas into, 
bank currency equally valuable in every part of, 
the reestablishment of, could be regarded only as a 

mistake, if there were no remedy for the gross 

violation of personal and public rights, . 
the reestablishment of, a necessity, 
preserved by the Republican party, 
its restoration and preservation, 
old, failure of, ... . 

restoration of old, .... 
as it was, ..... 
restoration of, on pro-slavery basis impossible, 
restored by the Republican party, . 
ceased to exist on the 17th of December, 1860, by 

the admission of Mr. Buchanan, . 
ceased to exist by the aggressive acts of one wing 

of the Democratic party, and by the non-action 

of the representatives of the whole party, 
United States, France ceded Louisiana to, by treaty, in 1803, 
annexation of Texas to, . 
citizens of the States are citizens of, 
when the governments of States are seized by force 

and fraud, the nation can not remain indifferent, 
humiliation of, in days of slavery, . 
influence of, in affairs of the world, 
capacity of, to support inhabitants, 
military power of, . 
fortunate condition of, (London "Times,") 
influence of example of, in China and Japan, 



13 

13 

•13 

14 

14 

14, 15 

16 

17 

18 



18 
19 

19 

23 
25 

98 



105 

105 

111 

105 

40 

40 

40 

63 

31,72 

30 



31 
14 
16 
97 

106 
107 
107 
108 
109 
111 
110 



1 INDEX. 

United States, financial ability of, . . . 110 

had neither capital nor skilled labor, at the close 

of the Revolution War, .... 74 

the farmers of, supply the laborers of Lowell and 

Pitsburgh, ...... 76 

• the political party in, most hostile to Great Britain, 

was also the one most hostile to protection, . 76 

the operatives in the manufactories of, enjoy more 

of the comforts of life than in 1860, . . 79 

the number of inhabitants in, in 1880, of the age 

of ten years and upwards, ... 81 

of the inhabitants of, in 1880, number employed 

in agriculture, trade, transportation, mechanics, 

manufactures, and mining, ... 81 

of the inhabitants of, in 1880, number employed 

in manufactures, ..... 81 

policy in regard to expatriation, ... 93 

valuation in, ..... . 92 

notes of ...... 68 

the public debt of, in March, 1869, ... 71 

the bonds of, in March, 1869, sold at eighty-three 

cents on the dollar, in gold, ... 71 

the debt of, in August, 1865, ... 72 

the debt of, June 30, 1883, .... 72 

the financial success of, the government of, is 

unexampled in the history of the world, . 73 

after the passage of the act for the organization of 

Kansas, all the territory in, was open to slavery, 27 

acquired a vast territory from Mexico by the treaty 

of Gaudalope Hidalgo, . . . . 16 

United States Notes, the issue of, the only financial 

measure of the war that has been assailed, . 69, 70 
the Supreme Court has sustained the authority of 

Congress to provide for the issue of, and to make 

them a legal tender, .... 70 

the act of February 25, 1862, does not permit the 

issue of, except upon a pledge of redemption in 

coin, .... .70 

in 1862, constituted the only means by which the 

army was to be paid and kept in the field, . 70 

Upper California, was ceded to the United States by the 

treaty of Gaudalope Hidalgo, . . 16 

Usurpation, anything in the nature of, is impossible with 

Congress, ...... 97 

States have been seized by, and held by a minority, 

through fear and force, .... 104 

in the presence of, the votes of two Democrats in 

South Carolina have as much weight in the goy- 

ernment as do those of five citizens of New 

York, 105 

Utah, the bill for the organization of the territory of, 

approved the same day as that for the admission 

of California, ..... 18 



INDEX. 11 

Utah, the whole of the territory of, north of the parallel 

36° 30', . . . . . 18 

the organization of the territory of, a concession 

to slavery, ...... 18 

Utah and New Mexico, by the death of President Taylor, 

in 1850, were opened to the chances of slavery, 18, 19 
it was claimed that the bills for the organization of 
the territories of, were an abandonment of the 
principles of the Missouri compromise, . . 20 

Valuation of property in 1860, .... 91 

Vessels, in the slave-trade, negroes found on after 1819 
to be delivered to the President for return to 
Africa, ...... 12 

Victory of the slave power in framing the Constitution was 

temporary, ...... 7 

was achieved by the South in every presidential 
election from 1828 to 1856 inclusive, unless that 
of Harrison be excepted, . 15 

of slavery in every contest was due to its alliance 
with one or both of the old political parties, . 22 

Virginia, and other border States willing to prohibit the 

foreign slave-trade, .... 13 

and the other border States willing that negroes 
found on slave-trading vessels should be returned 
to Africa, ...... 13 

Vote, the aggregate popular in 1860, exceeded four million 

six hundred and eighty thousand, . . 29 

under the defense offered for the suppression of, 
the minority may usurp the government, when- 
ever the rule of the majority is disagreeable 
or burdensome, ..... 103 

the suppression of, is defended upon the ground 
that it is impossible to live under negro govern- 
ment, ...... 103 

the fact of the systematic suppression of, in the 
South, is proved, and is often admitted by those 
who profit thereby, . . . 103 

all other issues are insignificant compared with that 
springing from the systematic suppression of, in 
the States of the South, ... 103 

Wages, the average for each person employed in manufac- 
turing for 1860, was $288.00, and for 1880, 

$346.00, 77 

the aggregate paid in 1880, and in 1860, . . 77 

rate of increase in Europe, .... 109 

about two and three-quarter million operatives are 
employed in manufactures, at an annual aggre- 
gate of, amounting to nearly one thousand million 
dollars, ...... 102 

War, by the annexation of Texas, the United States ac- 
cepted, &c., ..... 16 



lii INDEX. 

War with Mexico opened in May, 1846, ... 16 

with Mexico ended with the capture of the city, 
by Gen. Scott, ..... 16 

to suppress the rebellion was prosecuted by the 
Republican party, . . . . 24 

not exceeding one-fourth of the entire Democratic 
party contributed their full share to the prosecu- 
tion of, and the destruction of slavery, . . 96 
the exigencies of, compelled Congress to assume 

jurisdiction of the subject of paper circulation, 97 

commerce is the first and easiest victim of, . . 75 

the primary object of, ... . 40 

would have been a failure if it had been conducted 
by the Democratic party, .... 41 

the issue of United States notes is the only financial 

measure of, that has been assailed, . . 69, 70 

Mr. Buchanan asserted a right of property in the 
custom-houses and forts, which could not be* 
visited except as an act of, ... 30 

Washington and Jefferson were advocates of protection to 

domestic labor, ..... 76 

schools in the city of, . . . 89 

Wealth, law, and theology had combined for the protection 

of slavery, ...... 12 

Westborough, Massachusetts, Eli Whitney of, invented the 

cotton-gin between 1788 and 1800, . . 11 

West Indies, emancipation in, .... 107 

Whig and Democratic parties were rival bidders for south- 
ern support, ..... 15 

Whig party, could not command efficient support, &c, . 13 

would neither oppose nor defend slavery, . . 13 

disappeared, . .... 13 

was represented by Mr. Clay in the canvass of 1844, 15 

of the North was opposed to the annexation of 
Texas, ...... 15 

ceased to exist as a national organization, after the 

repeal of the Missouri compromise, . . 23 

effect of destruction of , . . . . 39 

White persons, surrender of as an incident of the system, 8 

Whitney, Eli, of Westborough, Worcester county, Mass., 

invented the cotton-gin between 1788 and 1800, 11 

Woodward, Geo. W., opinion in regard to Enrollment act, 55 




I 



.W -., — . - .. WW 



y£m^ 







Mi 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS • 

029 809 717 5 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



mil mil mil iiiii inn mil iiiii mi i 

029 809 717 5 



